The first block of high-performance 9+ generation gas centrifuges has been launched at the Isotope Separation Plant of the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk, Russia. The plant is an enterprise of Rosatom’s Nuclear Fuel Division. The Isotope Separation Plant at the Siberian Chemical Combine is the third of Rosatom’s four enterprises engaged in uranium enrichment to introduce gen. 9+ centrifuges.

The technical upgrade of the facility is a part of the modernization program of the sublimate-separation complex of the enterprise, which includes the gradual replacement of gas centrifuges of previous generations with up-to-date high-performance machines. Commissioning of new centrifuges in Seversk is scheduled for 2025-2027.

Natalia Nikipelova, President of TVEL (managing company of Rosatom's Fuel Division) said, "Rosatom's Fuel Division has been fulfilling a record-high production program for several years in a row, but at the same time, we are steadily implementing large-scale modernization projects at all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle that our enterprises are involved in. Rosatom has already invested heavily in modernizing nuclear fuel fabrication, uranium enrichment and conversion facilities, as well as manufacturing of gas centrifuges for isotope separation.”

Uranium enrichment is the process of increasing the percentage of the fissile isotope Uranium-235 (U-235) in uranium, separating it from the more common Uranium-238, because natural uranium lacks enough U-235 to sustain a nuclear chain reaction for power. Centrifuges play a key role in this separation process.