Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
U will inevitably be enriched slightly stronger than 235 U, which is a negligible effect in a once-through fuel cycle due to the low (55 ppm) share of 234 U in natural uranium but can become relevant after successive passes through an enrichment-burnup-reprocessing-enrichment cycle, depending on enrichment and burnup characteristics. 234
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]
For 12 CO to 13 CO it is 1.007 near the normal boiling point (81.6 K), and 1.003 for 12 CH 4 to 13 CH 4 near 111.7 K (boiling point). [17] The 13 C enrichment by distillation was developed in the late 1960s by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory. [18] [19] It is still the preferred method for 13 C enrichment.
The $1.8 billion project will aid in stockpile stewardship, a program designed to ensure the safety and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons without the use of underground explosive testing.
PUREX (plutonium uranium reduction extraction) is a chemical method used to purify fuel for nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. [7] PUREX is the de facto standard aqueous nuclear reprocessing method for the recovery of uranium and plutonium from used nuclear fuel ( spent nuclear fuel , or irradiated nuclear fuel).
Less than a formula quantity of strategic special nuclear material but more than 1,000 grams of uranium-235 (contained in uranium enriched to 20 percent or more in the U-235 isotope) or more than 500 grams of uranium-233 or plutonium-239, or in a combined quantity of more than 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds) when computed by the equation grams ...
But since plutonium-breeding reactors produce plutonium from U238, and thorium reactors produce fissile U233 from thorium, all breeding cycles could theoretically pose proliferation risks. [61] However U-232, which is always present in U-233 produced in breeder reactors, is a strong gamma-emitter via its daughter products, and would make weapon ...