the world's first gaseous diffusion plant, the method of uranium enrichment with the best theoretical basis, championed by the British, but which had never been tried in practice.
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Y-12Inside K-25, a series of over 1,000 huge cells were linked in a cascade through which uranium hexafluoride gas traveled, with small fractions of the U-235 isotope separated by a barrier material with microscopic pores. Production problems at K-25 led to an August 1943 decision that K-25 would not fully enrich uranium but would produce partially enriched feeder material for Y-12. A key production problem was developing a suitable diffusion barrier, material with millions of tiny holes that would also withstand the extremely corrosive gas involved. That problem was not solved until 1944 enabling production in 1945.