[ RadSafe ] Plutonium from Power Reactors

[Peter Bossew]

As far as I know this question is not silly at all. Pu from power 
reactors is not suitable for "serious" bombs but it seems that very 
crude and "inefficient", but still unpleasant devices can be made out of 
it. It could be an option for those who have no access to "good" Pu, 
i.e. those who have no Pu breeder reactors and reprocessing facilities, 
and would also be happy with the effect of a "somehow" exploding bomb. 
The main problem with such power-grade Pu seems to be that the implosion 
technology is particularly demanding. Tests with bombs made out of 
reactor Pu have been carried out by the US (and others, I am sure) in 
the 1960-1970s (?), allegedly "sucessfully", but apparently details were 
never made public (probably for good reasons).
I think some information can be found in 
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/index.html .

pb



Dan W McCarn wrote:
> Hi -
>
>  
>
> Please forgive me if this is a silly question: I thought that plutonium
> produced in power reactors was not suitable for building weapons because of
> significant ingrowth of several Pu isotopes making it unusable for weapons.
>
>
>  
>
> Could someone please clarify the proliferation issues of Pu produced in
> power reactors under normal burnup conditions? 
>
>  
>
> The following google hit seems to imply something different from my
> "understanding".
>
>  
>
> Or is the antineutrino detector focused on research reactors?
>
>  
>
> Dan W McCarn, Geologist
>
> Albuquerque & Houston
>
>  
>
> Antineutrino Detector <http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/apr08/6129>  Could Spot
> Atom Bomb Cheats
> IEEE Spectrum - New York,NY,USA
> The IAEA could get much-needed monitoring help from a new type of detector
> that researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), ...
>  
> <http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ncl=http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/apr08/61
> 29> See all stories on this topic 
>
>  
>
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-- 


-----------------------------------------------------
Peter Bossew 

European Commission (EC) 
Joint Research Centre (JRC) 
Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) 

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Tel. +39 0332 78 9109 
Fax. +39 0332 78 5466 
Email: peter.bossew at jrc.it 

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