Lomanitz worked at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory on a new method of electromagnetic separation of isotopes.
Here in these two buildings they did the electromagnetic separation.
The United Nations inspectors, in their latest report, said Iraq had given priority to enriching uranium through an outdated method called electromagnetic separation.
Two separation methods were developed which both took advantage of the fact that uranium-238 has a slightly greater atomic mass than uranium-235: electromagnetic separation and gaseous diffusion.
Iraq was taking up to a month to assemble each of the machines, called calutrons, with which it planned to make enriched uranium by electromagnetic separation.
Monazite, because of its magnetic properties can be separated by repeated electromagnetic separation.
Over the years, the technology of electromagnetic separation has advanced.
Y-12, originally used for electromagnetic separation of uranium, is still in use for nuclear weapons processing and materials storage.
Iraq is unlikely to have done this itself because its preferred enrichment method, called electromagnetic separation, would also remove the uranium 236.
Of the prospective processes, only Lawrence's electromagnetic separation appeared sufficiently advanced for construction to commence.