RE: Quiz: RE(2): Power Plant was declared bankrupt.[Scanned]

["Dr Christoph Hofmeyr" <chofmeyr@nnr.co.za>]

Emil, Jaro,

A few thoughts came to mind. U-238 contributes to fission, but only at

quite high neutron energies. This and some fission of the Pu-239 in the

blanket will contribute to fission products.  The blanket material would

be highly active, although less active than used fuel. In a normal

thermal reactor the conversion ratio C (the number of fissile nuclei

resulting from one fission)is typically 0.6, while in a breeder it must

by definition be >1.0 (in practice >1.02 or so to allow for reprocessing

losses).  Anyway, thermal reactor used fuel contains Pu-239 accompanied

by some of the higher isotopes (which makes it less suitable for nuclear

weapons), and some of it is recycled together with uranium in MOX fuel,

which is used in thermal reactors.

A Pu breeder could in principle initially start off on U-235 in stead of

Pu-239.  However,the world is faced with a stockpile of weapons grade

Pu-239 and U-235 and the problem seems to be how to dilute this material

down practically 'irretrievably' to reactor fuel to thwart

proliferation.

Personal musings.

Chris Hofmeyr

chofmeyr@nnr.co.za



-----Original Message-----

From: Emil [mailto:kerrembaev@YAHOO.COM]

Sent: 01 February 2003 08:37

To: Franta, Jaroslav; radsafe

Subject: Quiz: RE(2): Power Plant was declared bankrupt.[Scanned]





Jaro,



>>>>>>>>>>      the quantity of Pu from a small

350 MW breeder reactor would not be anywhere near

"hundreds of tons."  Such large quantities would

>>etc.

************************************************************************

You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,

send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu  Put the text "unsubscribe

radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.

You can view the Radsafe archives at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/