Re: Pu in DU?

[dsimpson@unlnotes01.unl.edu]

A brief discussion of transuranics in recycled enrichment feed is given in
Chapter 2 of the Department of Energy "Health Physics Manual of Good Practices
for Uranium Facilities" , document no. EGG-2530 UC-41, published in June 1988.
This is an unclassified document originally written by a group of HP's from
various US uranium facilities and published by the Idaho National Engineering
Laboratory.  The section is probably best summarized by the following quote
"Transuranics (Np and Pu isotopes) will exist in small quantities in (recycled)
feed materials.  In most cases the radiological controls based on uranium
hazards and concerns will be adequate to control the additional activity
concerns presented.  However, because of their higher specific activities and
lower ALIs (compared to uranium isotopes),transuranics can represent a
significant internal dose concern even at very low mass concentrations."  One
other comment was that "Raffinate from refinery operations, MgF2 from metal
production operations, and chemical traps from UF6  operations have all been
observed to have higher TRU to U ratios than either reactants/feeds or uranium
products."

Dave Simpson
dsimpson1@unl.edu


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