[ RadSafe ] [NucNews] Forest Service Approves Grand Canyon Uranium Mine Despite 26-year-old Environmental Review

George Stanford gstanford at aya.yale.edu
Mon Jul 2 19:31:14 CDT 2012


John Johnson:

      Yes.  DU is Depleted Uranium.  The proportion of U-235 has been 
reduced from the natural 0.71% to 0.2% - 0.3%.  To use DU as fuel in 
an IFR, it has to be "enriched" to about 20% fissile.  That fissile 
could be U-235 if it were available, but it's  much more practical to 
start with plutonium from used thermal-reactor fuel (LWR or 
CANDU).  Once an IFR has been started, it (and its successors) can 
run forever if the breeding gain is at least unity.  Per GWe-yr, it 
will put out one tonne of fission products, and require a tonne of 
uranium (natural or depleted) as a replacement.

      Mike Brennan is of course correct.  Currently, DU is stored as 
UF6 in steel cylinders, not at reactors, but mainly near enrichment 
plants in various parts of the country.  But the used fuel that IS 
stored at reactors can also be "mined" for uranium, as well as for 
the valuable plutonium and other higher actinides.

      By the way, the uranium in used LWR fuel is ~0.8% U-235, which 
makes it very good for CANDU fuel.

      --  George

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At 06:11 PM 7/2/2012, Brennan, Mike  (DOH) wrote:
Hi, John.

I believe Mr. Cohen was referring to DU as you define it (and as,
indeed, almost everyone defines it, normally), however, there are no
"huge deposits" of it "... on the premises of every nuclear plant."
What there is huge amounts of at every nuclear power plant is spent
nuclear fuel.  In a sort of twisted way it can be considered "depleted"
as some portion of the U235 has been consumed, and it can indeed be
"mined" for fuel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of John R Johnson
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 3:55 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] [NucNews] Forest Service Approves Grand Canyon
Uranium Mine Despite 26-year-old Environmental Review

Radsafers

Please confirm for this Canadian that by DU you mean natural uranium
(NU)
from which much of the U-235 has been removed.

John R Johnson

On Mon, Jul 2, 2012 at 3:20 PM, Brennan, Mike (DOH)
<Mike.Brennan at doh.wa.gov
 > wrote:

 > I am actually impressed that Mr. Cohen is astute enough to favor
 > reprocessing; his tone sounds like an activist, and so many activists
 > choose not to become familiar with the technical aspects of the thing
 > they are active against (or for, for that matter).
 >
 > Personally, I am not keen on mining anything in an area that can
 > accurately be described as "near" the Grand Canyon, as I consider the
 > Canyon of greater worth than what is taken from the ground (and if it
is
 > really, REALLY needed, it will be there later).  On the other hand, I
 > have heard Yucca Mountain described as "only" 100 miles from Las
Vegas,
 > so I'd like a more quantified description.
 >
 > If Mr. Cohen is not talking about reprocessing Spent Nuclear Fuel,
then
 > his statement about "huge deposits of DU" around nuclear power plants
is
 > confusing, unless my previous statement about activists not knowing
what
 > they are talking about applies.
 >
 > -----Original Message-----
 > From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
 > [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of George
 > Stanford
 > Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2012 7:11 PM
 > To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing
List
 > Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] [NucNews] Forest Service Approves Grand
Canyon
 > Uranium Mine Despite 26-year-old Environmental Review
 >
 >
 >       Actually, guys, we could indeed "mine" the DU that we've
 > already accumulated, as Peter suggests, and we probably will (but it
 > will take a while to get going).  Using the plutonium from used LWR
 > fuel as the essential catalyst to get started, fast reactors such as
 > the IFR and its ilk (PRISM, TWR, 4S, etc) can power the world for
 > centuries on the uranium that's already been mined -- and with no
 > more uranium enrichment needed, ever.
 >
 >       --  George
 >
 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 >
 > At 08:17 PM 7/1/2012, Maury wrote:
 > We need also advocate the early cessation of automobile production
....
 > Best,
 > Maury&Dog
 >
 > =================================
 >
 > On 7/1/2012 8:51 PM, Peter G Cohen wrote:
 >
 > The continued mining of uranium is a symptom of the profound sickness
 > of our government and the corporations it serves, well demonstrated
 > by our preference for death over life. All mining should be stopped
 > worldwide. We can mine the huge deposits of DU on the premises of
 > every nuclear plant.
 >   By continuing to mine, we are saying that money is more important
 > than life, that we don't care about  God's Creation, that our own
 > lives are expendable in the pursuit of money. We prostrate ourselves
 > before the Golden Calf!
 >
 > We must DO something! --Peter G Cohen
 >
 > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 >
 > On Jun 26, 2012, at 11:00 PM, Ellen Thomas wrote:
 >
 >    *Forest Service Approves Grand Canyon Uranium Mine Despite
 >    26-year-old Environmental Review*
 >
 >
 > June 26, 2012, by the Center for Biological Diversity
 >
 >
http://earthfirstnews.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/forest-service-approves-g
 >
rand-canyon-uranium-mine-despite-26-year-old-environmental-review/<http:
//earthfirstnews.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/forest-service-approves-grand-
canyon-uranium-mine-despite-26-year-old-environmental-review/>
 >
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