Production Processes and Plants

The following general comments may be made about these plants and processes  

All plants, except 16 and 18, have a different process for primary enrichment than for final concentration. 

Those plants that for primary concentration use water distillation (WD) or the dualtemperature, water-hydrogen sulfide (GS) process are self-contained plants whose sole product is heavy water. 

All other plants that for primary concentration use water electrolysis (WE), steam-hydrogen exchange (SH), synthesis gas distillation (SD), hydrogen distillation (HD), or ammonia-hydrogen exchange (AH) are parasitic to a synthetic ammonia plant. Heavy water is a by-product of these plants, and its production rate is limited by the amount of deuterium in the ammonia plant feed. 

Water distillation is used for final concentration in all plants still operating, except 16 and 18 

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Depending on the particular product, process and plant, the OCS will need to communicate to an extremely wide variety of devices. Experience in the 1990s suggests that these will include traditional PLC systems, intelligent instrumentation and other control systems (e.g., barcode readers, barcode printers, weigh and dispense systems, etc.). 

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