French Eurodif enrichment plant, with 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. The Australian company Silex Systems has developed a 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, 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. It has also been claimed that Israel has a uranium enrichment program housed at the Negev Nuclear Research Center site near Dimona. Codename During the Manhattan Project, weapons-grade highly enriched uranium was given the codename oralloy, a shortened version of Oak Ridge alloy, after the location of the plants where the uranium was enriched. The term oralloy is still occasionally used to refer to enriched uranium. See also List of laser articles MOX fuel Nuclear fuel bank Orano Uranium market Uranium mining References External links Annotated bibliography on enriched uranium from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues Silex Systems Ltd Uranium Enrichment , World Nuclear Association Overview and history of U.S. HEU production News Resource on Uranium Enrichment Nuclear Chemistry-Uranium Enrichment A busy year for SWU (a 2008 review of the commercial enrichment marketplace), Nuclear Engineering International, 1 September 2008 Uranium Enrichment and Nuclear Weapon Proliferation, by Allan S. Krass, Peter Boskma, Boelie Elzen and Wim A. Smit, 296 pp., published for SIPRI by Taylor and Francis Ltd, London, 1983 Isotope separation Nuclear fuels Uranium, Enriched Nuclear weapon design Uranium