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Re: specific activity of depleted uranium
You need to be careful about lumping all DU into one basket. The DU
used by the DOD has a wt% of U-235 closer to 0.2% and the U-234 is
also different but I do not have the numbers. De-enriched is a good
term because it highlights the fact that there is a "variable"
de-enrichment fraction.
Eric G. Daxon
egdaxon@juno.com
Standard disclaimers.
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: specific activity of depleted uranium
Author: <radsafe@romulus.ehs.uiuc.edu > at internet-mail
Date: 1/22/99 4:13 PM
In 49CFR173.434, the Wt% of U-235 in depleted uranium (DU) = 0.45, and
the specific activity (SA) = 5.0 E(-)7 Ci/g. For U-natural the SA is
7.1 E(-)7 Ci/g. A footnote to that table says these values indicate
the activity of U-234 (that) is concentrated during the enrichment
process. I suppose for DU a more appropriately term would be
'de-enrichment.' In any event, when I calculate the SA for DU I get
get 3.5 E(-)7 Ci/g [0.01 E(-)7 Ci/g for U-235 + 3.34 E(-)7 Ci/g for
U-238]. My value for DU is similar to the SA value for U-natural
found on page 65 of "Radioactivity in the Environment" by Ron Kathren.
Should I assume the difference in the 49CFR values and my values are
due to U-234. I'm not sure why my values for DU closely match Ron's.
I would an explanation for these differences. Thanks.
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