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The Zero Power Physics Reactor or ZPPR (originally named Zero Power Plutonium Reactor) was a split-table-type critical facility located at the Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho, USA. [1] It was designed for the study of the physics of power breeder systems and was capable of simulating fast reactor core compositions characteristic of 300-500 MWe ...
In a 2008 paper, Kessler et al. used a thermal analysis to conclude that a hypothetical nuclear explosive device was "technically unfeasible" using reactor grade plutonium from a reactor that had a burn up value of 30 GWd/t using "low technology" designs akin to Fat Man with spherical explosive lenses, or 55 GWd/t for "medium technology" designs.
, fast reactors could use all of them for fuel. All actinides can undergo neutron induced fission with unmoderated or fast neutrons. A fast reactor is therefore more efficient than a thermal reactor for using plutonium and higher actinides as fuel. These fast reactors are better suited for the transmutation of other actinides than thermal ...
The plutonium from a power reactor tends to have a greater amount of plutonium-241 than the plutonium generated by the lower burnup operations designed to create weapons-grade plutonium. Because the reactor-grade plutonium contains so much 241 Pu, the presence of 241 Am makes the plutonium less suitable for making a nuclear weapon. The ingrowth ...
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 ...
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).
Clementine was the code name for the world's first continuous [note 1] fast-neutron reactor, also known as the Los Alamos fast plutonium reactor. It was an experimental-scale reactor. The maximum output was 25 kW and was fueled by plutonium and cooled by liquid mercury. Clementine was located at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New ...
Special nuclear materials have plutonium, uranium-233 or uranium with U 233 or U 235 that has a content found more than in nature. Source material is thorium or uranium that has a U 235 content equal to or less than what is in nature. Byproduct material is radioactive material that is not source or special nuclear material.