Editing Enriched uranium (section)

==Global enrichment facilities==
{{See also|Georges-Besse plant}}
The following countries are known to operate enrichment facilities: Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, the Netherlands, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.<ref name="IEER-2004">{{Cite book |last1=Makhijani |first1=Arjun |url=http://www.ieer.org/reports/uranium/enrichment.pdf |title=Uranium enrichment |last2=Chalmers |first2=Lois |last3=Smith |first3=Brice |date=15 October 2004 |publisher=Institute for Energy and Environmental Research |access-date=21 November 2009 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.ieer.org/reports/uranium/enrichment.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite report |page=730 |url=http://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/house/committee/isr/uranium/report/fullreport.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/house/committee/isr/uranium/report/fullreport.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Australia's uranium - Greenhouse friendly fuel for an energy hungry world |work=Standing Committee on Industry and Resources |publisher=The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia |date=November 2006 |access-date=3 April 2015}}</ref> Belgium, Iran, Italy, and Spain hold an investment interest in the French [[Eurodif]] enrichment plant, with [[Dominique Lorentz#Eurodif and Iran's nuclear program|Iran's holding]] entitling it to 10% of the enriched uranium output. Countries that had enrichment programs in the past include Libya and South Africa, although Libya's facility was never operational.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5278806.stm | title=Q&A: Uranium enrichment | publisher=BBC| date = 1 September 2006 | access-date=3 January 2010 | work=BBC News}}</ref> The Australian company Silex Systems has developed a [[Atomic vapor laser isotope separation|laser enrichment]] process known as SILEX ([[separation of isotopes by laser excitation]]), which it intends to pursue through financial investment in a U.S. commercial venture by General Electric,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/laser-enrichment-could-cut-cost-of-nuclear-power/2006/05/26/1148524888448.html|title=Laser enrichment could cut cost of nuclear power|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=26 May 2006}}</ref> Although SILEX has been granted a license to build a plant, the development is still in its early stages as laser enrichment has yet to be proven to be economically viable, and there is a petition being filed to review the license given to SILEX over nuclear proliferation concerns.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Weinberger |first=Sharon |date=2012-09-28 |title=US grants licence for uranium laser enrichment |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.11502 |journal=Nature |language=en |doi=10.1038/nature.2012.11502 |s2cid=100862135 |issn=1476-4687|doi-access=free }}</ref> It has also been claimed that Israel has a uranium enrichment program housed at the [[Negev Nuclear Research Center]] site near [[Dimona]].<ref name=nwa-19971210>{{cite web|url=http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Israel/|date=10 December 1997|title=Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program|publisher=Nuclear Weapon Archive|access-date=7 October 2007}}</ref>