A calutron is a mass spectrometer originally designed and used for separating the isotopes of uranium. It was developed by Ernest Lawrence during the Manhattan Project and was based on his earlier invention, the cyclotron.

California University Cyclotron, or the Calutron, is a mass spectrometer which was created during the Manhattan Project by Earnest O. Lawrence for the isotope separation of 235 U from 238 U. When nuclear fission was realized by European physicists in the late 1930's, the race to create a nuclear bomb began.

The purpose of this module is to assist the trainee in describing the general principles of the electromagnetic separation (calutron) and thermal diffusion technologies and general facility and component layouts, identifying the uses of the calutron and thermal diffusion processes in industry and the production amounts of enriched uranium, and i...

The calutron design settled on in 1942, called "alpha," provided for enrichment of natural uranium to about 15 percent U-235. Extravagant effort went into designing powerful ion sources and aptly shaped, eventually parabolic collecting slots.

Jul 19, 2023 · Today’s post, from Alyssa Moore, in the National Archives History Office, looks at the Calutron Girls in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during World War II. Calutron was an acronym for “California University cyclotron,” named after the University of California, Berkeley, where the devices were developed.

The calutron’s basic design was to be a “batch process” where a quantity of uranium and chloride was placed in a charge box and the unit operated for a while and when the charge box was near empty the receiver pocket would be removed along with the charge box.

Calutrons were developed in the laboratory of E. O. Lawrence at the University of California at Berkeley. They were a modification of the cyclotrons he had invented and used in his Nobel Prize-winning investigations of the atomic nucleus.

At its peak, the plants at Y-12 had 22,000 workers who ran the “calutrons,” machines designed after the cyclotron or “atom smasher” invented by Ernest O. Lawrence at the University of California. The Y-12 “calutrons” were used to separate …

Sep 1, 1997 · The classic calutron is a 180° sector homogeneous magnetic field instrument with the source and collector internal to the magnetic field. It employs a side extraction ion source, produces a line image at the collector and has multibeam capabilities.

What is a Calutron? The caliitrons (California University Cyclotron) built at Y-12 were the brainchild ofNoble Laureate E. O. Lawrence. At its peak of production in World War 11. Y-12 had h 152 calutrons in operation in five Alpha buildings and four Beta buildings. A calutron is a mass spectrometer used for separating