[NukeNet] [no-new-nukes-yall] Re: More on PU Shortage and NASA Missions

[Dolph Honicker]

I find this totally confusing.   Would someone else like to clarify it?
 
 Nuclear Power plants routinely produce Plutonium.  Any nation that has a nuclear power plant has the technology to produce the material that will be used in nuclear bombs.  I had understood that fuel that is irradiated in regular reactors needs to stay in the reactors a shorter time to produce bombgrade plutonium than is usually the case.  
 
How come the waste in the 51 hugh tanks of waste left over from reprocessing at SRS has not been cleaned up, in spite of the u.s. paying Westinghouse over $1 billion a year since 1990  and only 2 of the tanks have been emptied to the extent that they could be grouted, and the crud in the bottom of those two tanks was still very hot?
 
Jeannine



Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:01:59 -0400To: rhelbig at california.com; nukeresister at igc.org; djhonicker at msn.comFrom: kcumbow at greatlakes.netCC: no-new-nukes-yall at yahoogroups.com; nukenet at energyjustice.netSubject: [NukeNet] [no-new-nukes-yall] Re: More on PU Shortage and NASA MissionsI appreciate this critical clarification, Roger, Jack and Jeanine. - KayFrom: Felice & Jack Cohen-Joppa <nukeresister at igc.org> Sender: no-new-nukes-yall at yahoogroups.com Mailing-List: list no-new-nukes-yall at yahoogroups.com; contact no-new-nukes-yall-owner at yahoogroups.com Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 21:29:02 -0700 X-ASG-Orig-Subj: [no-new-nukes-yall] Re: More on PU Shortage and NASA  Missions Just for the sake of clarity, the Pu-238 used for thermoelectric generators is not the isotope used in weapons, and in fact is uncommon among the Pu isotopes, as it is not among the isotopes in waste from nuclear reactors and is cumbersome to produce and isolate:  following is from the Wikipedia page:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium-238"Plutonium 238, is a radioactive isotope of plutonium with a half-life of 87.7 years and is a very powerful alpha emitter. Because of its high level of alpha activity, it is used for radioisotope thermoelectric generators and radioisotope heater units. The use of plutonium-238 in American and Russian (and old Soviet Union) spacecraft is somewhat controversial."Plutonium-238 was the first isotope of plutonium to be discovered. It was synthesized by Glenn Seaborg and associates in 1941 by bombarding uranium-238 with deuterons. Neptunium-238 is made as an intermediate product, which then decays to form plutonium-238. Plutonium-238 decays to Uranium-234 and then further along the radium series to Lead-206."Today, Plutonium 238 is usually prepared by the irradiation of neptunium 237, a minor actinide produced in nuclear reactors, that can be recovered from spent nuclear fuel during reprocessing, or by the irradiation of americium in a reactor. In both cases, the targets are subjected to a chemical treatment, including dissolution in nitric acid to extract the plutonium-238. A 100kg sample of light water reactor fuel that has been irradiated for three years contains only about 700 grams of neptunium 237, and the neptunium must be extracted selectively."The United States currently has limited facilities to produce plutonium-238. Since 1993, the U.S. has purchased all of the plutonium-238 it has used in space probes from Russia. 16.5 kilograms total have been purchased.[1]"Jack-- 


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