RE: ABC's Depleted Uranium Smuggling Article

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

However, if you do not monitor for neutrons, how can

you tell if it is HEU, DU or natural-U?



This whole subject of detecting and identifying

radiactive sources goes back to the weapons' ban

between the US and USSR in the late 1980s. 

 

--- "Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@AECL.CA> wrote:

>  

> 1.  HEU has a neutron signature.  Customs is not

> going to tell you how they

> monitor for fissile material shipments.

>  

> Ruth,

> The specific neutron source rate for small

> quantities of HEU is approx.

> 2.25/kg-sec.

> For a large mass with a ko of 0.99 (~16.4 kg) the

> rate is still only about

> 3,700/sec (compared to 19E6/sec and 153E6/sec for

> similar ko masses of WGPu

> & RGPu respectively).

>  

> However, as I said before, in the isotope separation

> (enrichment) processing

> of natural uranium, much of the U-234 is removed

> with the U-235, becoming

> part of the HEU product (~ 93% U-235). The

> radioactivity of the depleted

> uranium by-product, all but 0.2% of which is U-238,

> is sharply decreased. 

> 

> As a result, in HEU, about ~ 1% is U-234, compared

> to just 0.0005% in DU,

> and compared to 0.0057% in natural uranium. Thus

> there is about 2000 times

> as much of the more radioactive U-234 in HEU than in

> DU. This makes for very

> dis-similar radiation signatures and likelyhood of

> detection.  The ABC story

> is ABS ("grade-A  B.S.")

> 

> Jaro 

> 

> http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/quebec.html

> <http://www.cns-snc.ca/branches/quebec/quebec.html> 

> 

> 

> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

> 

>  

> 

> 





=====

+++++++++++++++++++

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain it."

Abraham Lincoln



-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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