"There is more (weapons grade) material on civilian sites than all weapons stockpiles put together"

[PamW]

31. Non Sequitur - what does this have to do with nuclear power

Kris again demonstrates his lack of understanding of the technical issues.

What does this interview with Bunn have to do with nuclear power??

Bunn is talking about the use of weapons grade uranium in research reactors; not power reactors.

Our friend who "thinks" that 49% of natural uranium is U-234 evidently doesn't understand the fuel mixes used in various reactor types.

Power reactors in the USA, both PWR and BWR; use a fuel mix that consists of 3-4% U-235 ( the fissile isotope ) and 96-97% U-238.
This fuel mix used by ALL power reactors is called LEU or Low Enriched Uranium. This mix of uranium isotopes is IMPOSSIBLE to use for bomb fuel. Bomb fuel needs a very high percentage of U-235 in the fuel mix because bombs have to operate on a fast spectrum; they can't wait for neutrons to slow down like a reactor can. A reactor operates at a steady power, and can wait a millisecond or so for neutrons to slow down. For a constant power reactor, the power level a millisecond ago is the same as the power level at the current time.

A bomb isn't like that. The power level of a bomb is rising rapidly. The whole explosion process of going from essentially zero power to generating all the energy of the nuclear explosion takes place in less time than it takes a single generation of neutrons to slow down to the thermal energies that power reactors run on. Therefore, a bomb can't run on a thermal neutron spectrum, and it needs HEU - Highly Enriched Uranium as fuel.

Research reactors, of the type one would find at a University; used to run on HEU also. However, there was a program run by Argonne National Lab starting back in the '80s called RERTR ( Reduced Enrichment - Research & Test Reactors ). The idea was to develop an LEU fuel that could be used for research and test reactors. The Ford Reactor at the University of Michigan, which had been running on HEU was the test bed. Argonne developed a new fuel that was LEU that could be used by most research reactors that were then using HEU.

However, there are 3 research reactors that can't use the new LEU fuel. Two of those reactors are owned by Universities, and one is at a Government-owned national laboratory. I'm very familiar with one of the university reactors. The core of this reactor is very small; about the size of 2 coffee cans. Because of that; it can't use the current LEU fuel. However, the national labs are still working on developing a higher density version of this fuel, and when that higher density fuel is developed, the university that owns the reactor plans on converting to the LEU fuel. However, in the mean time; the amount of HEU fuel that is added at refueling time is less than what one needs to make a bomb. Once the reactor has been operated with the new fuel; that new fuel is no longer useful for making a bomb. So even if someone manages to find out when the university is going to fuel the reactor, and steals the new HEU fuel; there's not enough to make a bomb. Still, the university that owns the reactor plans to switch to an LEU fuel as soon as a workable LEU fuel is available.

I believe the university that owns the other HEU-fueled research reactor will follow suit. As far as the third HEU fueled test reactor; it is located at a US Government-owned national laboratory. The national laboratories are well protected by their security forces. After all; some of those laboratories and facilities are used to design, refurbish and maintain the USA's stockpile of nuclear weapons. They don't have just bomb fuel; they have actual bombs - so are well protected, as are the military bases that are the normal home to the nuclear weapons.

The main concern is not the HEU-fueled reactors in the USA; but HEU-fueled reactors in other countries.

It's kind of funny, because the US Department of Energy wanted to consolidate the places where they have weapons-usable material. In fact, they wanted to have it all in ONE spot - Los Alamos National Laboratory. All the work on weapons-usable material and the storage of this material was to be consolidated into a single facility called the "CMRR-NF". Ironically, the anti-nukes have been opposing the funding and building of the CMRR-NF facility at Los Alamos. Because of that, the weapons material will remain strewn at many different facilities in the DOE complex instead of being consolidated into one facility at Los Alamos.

Pity - the anti-nukes regularly appear to be operating against their own principles. Mainly because the don't think.

PamW