Re: RADSAFE digest 3606

[Jacques.Read@eh.doe.gov]

Dr. Cohen asked:    "There was a report in NY Times that U-236 was found in the
DU.
Presumably that means that it has been through a reactor cycle. Does that
mean that some of the DU is from reprocessed spent fuel which has been
re-enriched?"

Virtually all of the US's 700,000 tons of DU has been through the same cascades
that was also fed the reprocessed uranium from Pu production, so all of our DU
has a bit of U236 in it.  Recall that fuel is withdrawn from reactors not
because it burnt out its U235, but because it's been poisoned by
neutron-absorbing fission products, so there's plenty of good recoverable U235
still in it.



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