Behind Closed Doors -Reply -Reply

[FRAMEP@ORAU.GOV]

The question was raised: 
 
> 2) Isn't a "ten pound sphere of plutonium" pretty much a
>critical mass in a critical geometry?

As I understand it, you have the mass (or pretty close) and the
geometry, but you'll lose too many neutrons from the surface for it
to go critical. You need a reflector such as beryllium.  The most
recent sunday morning c-span news analysis show had one of the
editors of U.S.  News and World Reports on as a guest. She took the
opportunity to hype the magazine's cover story this week about a
large shipment of beryllium (out of Russia) and described beryllium
as fissionable and highly radioactive. The article itself gets it
right though.

Paul Frame