Re: Spent Fuel and Possible Bomb Material

[Rahim Ghanooni <rahim@inav.net>]

Just for the fun of it.

The problem with nuclear power plant is that people think they are based on
"mashroom cloud", if electricity was designed on "electric chair" we would
not have electricity. 




At 06:10 PM 8/29/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Myung -
>
>You are NOT entering into a scientific debate.
>
>Citizen Alert has a mission: shut down the dreaded nuclear industry and save
>an unsuspecting planet from eventual destruction.
>
>The no-nuke INDUSTRY (they're huge and well funded) consistently "kicks-butt"
>in the PR arena by combining truth, half-truths, and out right fabrications.
>Favorite buss words: Hirosima, Chernobyl, Plutonium, scare the willy's out of
>your next door neighbors every time. They even got you wondering!
>
>The simple truth is that 10's of thousands of people die each year on the
>highway -- none have ever died from the radioactive nature of a spent fuel
>shipments (and probably will never).
>
>Transportation of spent fuel is fundamentally safe because the containers are
>nearly indestructible.
>
>Aside from that, the material inside is not explosive like gasoline trucks
>(which go boom from time-to-time), does not emit toxic chemical gases (like
>chlorine railroad tankers) but is basically solid and difficult to disperse.
>
>If your interested in truth and willing to object to scare tatics, contact
>NEI at 202 739 8052 and ask them to provide some facts.
>
>Good luck.  Mike Russell (russelmj@songs.sce.com)
>
>
>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)
>
>
Mr. Rahim Ghanooni
Sr. Health Physicist
Certified Hazardous Material Manager (CHMM)
319-851-7133
rahim@inav.net

My opinion only.