The gas centrifuge is a hyper-centrifuge used to produce enriched uranium. It requires far less energy to achieve the same separation than the older gaseous diffusion process, which it has largely replaced.
Large cascades of gas centrifuges are operated by France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and the United States of America to produce enriched uranium both for domestic use and for export, and by Japan for domestic use. Pakistan is widely believed to have constructed a smaller cascade in secret for military purposes.
See also