nuclear-news

Silex laser uranium enrichment process classified secret under Atomic Energy Act

Some New Wrinkles in Nuclear Weapons Secrecy, Secrecy News, August 22nd, 2011 by Steven Aftergood  “………At this late date in the nuclear era, there are still other “innovations” in nuclear technology and nuclear secrecy.  The New York Times reported last weekend on an apparent breakthrough in the use of lasers to enrich uranium.  This laser enrichment process, known as SILEX (Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation), also poses new proliferation issues.  See “Laser Advances in Nuclear Fuel Stir Terror Fear” by William J. Broad, August 21.

Though the Times story did not mention it, the SILEX process is also a unique case in which information that was privately generated was nevertheless classified by the government. …..
As far as could be determined, the decision to classify this non-governmental information under the Atomic Energy Act is the first and only time that such authority has been exercised.  See this 2001 “Record of Decision to Classify Certain Elements of the SILEX Process as Privately Generated Restricted Data.”  (See also “A Glimpse of the SILEX Uranium Enrichment Process,” Secrecy News, August 22, 2007.)   Some New Wrinkles in Nuclear Weapons Secrecy | Secrecy News

August 23, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | technology, Uranium, USA, weapons and war