[ RadSafe ] Depleted Uranium ~ Commercial Dross or Military Gold?(CCNR)

[Peter Thomas]

As far as use in H-bombs goes it's partly a tamper to keep the explosion
in longer to get more complete reaction and thus increase the
efficiency, partly a neutron reflector again to get more complete
reaction, and partly for the extra fission yield from fast neutrons.

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon_design

Peter Thomas
Medical Physics Section
ARPANSA
 


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl [mailto:radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl] On
Behalf Of Roger Helbig
Sent: Saturday, 2 December 2006 8:20 PM
To: radsafelist
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Depleted Uranium ~ Commercial Dross or Military
Gold?(CCNR)


http://www.ccnr.org/depleted.html
Depleted Uranium ~ Commercial Dross or Military Gold ?

Natural uranium is a blend of two types : U-235 and U-238.   
At a uranium enrichment plant, the concentration of U-235 
is increased by discarding some U-238.   The cast-off uranium (mainly
U-238),
called ''depleted uranium'', has virtually no  commercial value.
But there are several important military  uses for depleted uranium :

---------------------------------
Containers of depleted uranium.
Photo by Robert Del Tredici   

when placed in a reactor, it breeds plutonium -- a powerful nuclear
explosive;   
when incorporated into an H-bomb, it doubles the  explosive power of the
weapon;   
when used to coat conventional bullets and  shells, it makes them
armour-piercing;   
when used as a metallic alloy in tanks and other  vehicles, it provides
armour-plating. 
>     
Is DU, close to pure U-238 used in a breeder reactor to produce
plutonium? 
(and if so, are there any currently operational breeder reactors?) Is it
incorporated in H-Bombs ..that seems a far stretch, especially the part
about doubling the explosive power It is not used to coat conventional
bullets and shells; it is used as the armor penetrator, a rod of DU
alloy The armor plating also seems to be described rather simplistically

How do you eliminate misleading information like this from the net and
counter it with accurate information?

 ccnr at web.net

>   Since March 27th 1996, there have been over
> 100,000 outside visitors to the CCNR web site, plus
> 
> (counter reset July 2nd 1998 at midnight)

100,000 visitors does not seem like a huge amount, but I bet that the
number of visits become substantial now that the activists are
circulating the site

Thanks.

Roger Helbig


_______________________________________________
You are currently subscribed to the RadSafe mailing list

Before posting a message to RadSafe be sure to have read and understood
the RadSafe rules. These can be found at:
http://radlab.nl/radsafe/radsaferules.html

For information on how to subscribe or unsubscribe and other settings
visit: http://radlab.nl/radsafe/

***********************************************************************************
Important: This email (including any attachments) is intended only for the use of the
addressee and may contain confidential and / or privileged information.  
If you are not the intended addressee, you are prohibited from relaying on, distributing, disclosing, 
copying or in any other way using any information in this email. If you have received this email in error, 
please notify the sender immediately and erase all copies.
Any opinions expressed in this email are not necessarily held or authorised by Australian Radiation 
Protection And Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA).
Whilst ARPANSA has taken all reasonable steps to ensure this is email is virus free,
it accepts no responsibility and makes no warranty. The recipient should take its own steps to ensure
there is no virus and bears full responsibility for any use.

Australian Radiation Protection And Nuclear Safety Agency
***********************************************************************************