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Dirty bomb could be made from uranium-233 recovered from thorium reactor

NUCLEAR SECURITY AND MALICIOUS ACTIONS:  Uranium
An atomic bomb can be made from materials containing sufficient fissile nuclides to sustain a divergent fission chain reaction. Uranium as found in nature contains 0.7% uranium-235, the only fissile nuclide  occurring in nature. The remaining 99.3% consists of U-238 and traces of U-234, both nuclides are not  fissile.
Natural uranium is not suitable for bombs, it has to be enriched in U-235 to make a nuclear explosion  possible. In this context often the designations HEU (highly enriched uranium) and LEU (low enriched  uranium) are used. LEU contains less than 20% U-235 and is considered to be not weapon-usable, HEU  usually contains 90% U-235 or more (weapons grade), but uranium at any enrichment assay higher than  20% is often also called HEU. The global stockpile of HEU, equivalent with 90% enriched HEU, was 1390 kg
as of January 2013 (IPFM 2013).
.
Each kind of fissile materials has a specific critical mass……… Separation of fissile materials
From the previous sections it follows that a considerable part of nuclear security problems concerning fissile  materials suitable to make crude nuclear explosives – plutonium, neptunium and americium – originate  from one source: reprocessing of civil spent fuel. In addition uranium-233 is recovered by reprocessing from  special thorium-uranium reactors.
Do the benefits of reprocessing outweigh the security and health risks it generates plus the costs of  safeguarding the separated dangerous materials?  Without reprocessing the only way to acquire fissile bomb material would be enrichment of uranium…. http://nuclearpolicy.info/docs/news/NuclearSecurity.pdf

March 11, 2014 - Posted by | Reference, reprocessing, Uranium

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