Re: Spent Fuel Shipment Info

["GARY MANSFIELD" <GARY.MANSFIELD@quickmail.llnl.gov>]

        Reply to:   RE>Spent Fuel Shipment Info

Myung Chul and Radsafers:

A possible source of info regarding these shipments would be the Final
Environmental Impact Statement "Proposed Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation
Policy Concerning Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel" DOE/EIS-0218F,
February 1996.   The entire document is about a foot thick, but they have a
summary document also.  The inside cover of this document suggests that copies
might be available from 1-800-736-3282, which I believe is DOE's Center for
Environmental Management.

I have not had time to read this document (or even scan the summary.) 
However, I do remember seeing an old SANDIA Lab movie, wherein they
purposefully crashed a gizillion ton locomotive, going at about 90 miles per
hour, into a semi-truck carrying a typical spent fuel cask.  The truck was
homogenized, and the cask had a dent or two.  So I can't get all worked up
about these shipments.

The above is my personal opinion, and does not reflect the views of LLNL, DOE,
or anyone else.  

Gary Mansfield
mansfield2@llnl.gov

--------------------------------------
Date: 8/29/96 10:23 AM
To: GARY MANSFIELD
From: radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu
This city where I live is having a few activities against proposed passage
of spent fuel from research reactors around the world (and maybe US Navy)
passing through the city.  The returned spent fuel would arrive at
Concord, CA and will be headed to a western state via Nevada.  An
anti-nuclear group called "Citizen Alert" claims that the shipment have
equivalent material to make 60 nuclear bombs dropped in Hiroshima.

Could anyone tell me how this type of group derive these numbers in
general?  I do not know any info about volume or weight of the spent fuel 
being shipped.

What is the critical mass for U-235 and Pu-239?  20 pounds is coming
to my mind somehow?  Is this a classified information?

What fraction of the spent fuel would be U-235?  I assume these fuels are
highly enriched with U-235.  

This is only my opinion...
Myung Chul Jo <mjo@scs.unr.edu>
(702) 784-4540(voice)
(702) 784-4553(fax)


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From: Myung Chul Jo <mjo@scs.unr.edu>
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Subject: Spent Fuel and Possible Bomb Material 
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