On Sunday, December 6, 2020, 04:19:13 PM PST, grarpamp
Is isotope separation going to run into nuke centrifuge dual use issues? Zinc is currently centrifuged in relatively limited quantities for use as a corrosion-inhibitor for nuclear reactors. The problem is (was) that the lightest zinc isotope, Zn-64, reacts with a thermal neutron to form Zn-65, which emits dangerous gamma rays. So, decades ago they began separating out the Zn-64 from the other zinc isotopes. I think the market for this is about 2 tons per year. It's called "depleted zinc". ie: How will bulk manufacturing of pure glass, silicon, etc be different... These blue LEDs are made with gallium nitride crystals. The critical issue is the p+ (hole) doping, which has been done using magnesium atoms. The problem is that most magnesium atoms don't create a 'hole', but a few do. Similarly, Zinc does a weak job because only 4.1% of natural isotope zinc is Zn67. Most are other isotopes.