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To reduce the concentration of Pu-240 in the plutonium produced, weapons program plutonium production reactors (e.g. B Reactor) irradiate the uranium for a far shorter time than is normal for a nuclear power reactor. More precisely, weapons-grade plutonium is obtained from uranium irradiated to a low burnup.
Various oxidation states of plutonium in solution. Plutonium compounds are compounds containing the element plutonium (Pu). At room temperature, pure plutonium is silvery in color but gains a tarnish when oxidized. [1] The element displays four common ionic oxidation states in aqueous solution and one rare one: [2] Pu(III), as Pu 3+ (blue lavender)
Reactor-grade plutonium (RGPu) [1] [2] is the isotopic grade of plutonium that is found in spent nuclear fuel after the uranium-235 primary fuel that a nuclear power reactor uses has burnt up. The uranium-238 from which most of the plutonium isotopes derive by neutron capture is found along with the U-235 in the low enriched uranium fuel of ...
This could be valuable because an electromagnetic enrichment process that could produce one gram of uranium enriched to 40 percent uranium-235 from natural uranium, could produce two grams per day of uranium enriched to 80 percent uranium-235 if the feed was enriched to 1.4 percent uranium-235, double the 0.7 percent of natural uranium. [46]
The process produced a plutonium nitrate solution with 80 to 100 grams of plutonium per liter, suitable for feeding into the RMA line. A semiworks demonstrated the feasibility of the process, albeit recovering uranium instead of plutonium, and the design of a permanent facility was completed by October 1953. Construction work began in May 1953 ...
Watchdogs are raising new concerns about legacy contamination in Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb and home to a renewed effort to manufacture key components for nuclear weapons. A ...
A subcritical reactor —regardless of neutron spectrum— can also "breed" fissile nuclides from fertile material, allowing in principle the consumption of very low grade actinides (e.g. Spent MOX fuel whose plutonium-240 content is too high for use in current critical thermal reactors) without the need for highly enriched material as used in ...
Nuclear reprocessing is the chemical separation of fission products and actinides from spent nuclear fuel. [1] Originally, reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing nuclear weapons. With commercialization of nuclear power, the reprocessed plutonium was recycled back into MOX nuclear fuel for thermal reactors. [2]