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For such use, the concentration of fissile isotopes uranium-235 and plutonium-239 in the element used must be sufficiently high. Uranium from natural sources is enriched by isotope separation, and plutonium is produced in a suitable nuclear reactor.
But since plutonium-breeding reactors produce plutonium from U238, and thorium reactors produce fissile U233 from thorium, all breeding cycles could theoretically pose proliferation risks. [61] However U-232, which is always present in U-233 produced in breeder reactors, is a strong gamma-emitter via its daughter products, and would make weapon ...
The "special nuclear materials" are also plutonium-239, uranium-233, and enriched uranium (U-235). Note that the 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material definition of nuclear material does not include thorium. [4] The NRC has a regulatory process for nuclear materials with five main components. [5]
The odd numbered fissile plutonium isotopes present in spent nuclear fuel, such as Pu-239, decrease significantly as a percentage of the total composition of all plutonium isotopes (which was 1.11% in the first example above) as higher and higher burnups take place, while the even numbered non-fissile plutonium isotopes (e.g. Pu-238, Pu-240 and ...
The two fissile materials used in nuclear weapons are: 235 U, also known as highly enriched uranium (HEU), "oralloy" meaning "Oak Ridge alloy", [12] or "25" (a combination of the last digit of the atomic number of uranium-235, which is 92, and the last digit of its mass number, which is 235); and 239 Pu, also known as plutonium-239, or "49 ...
The first use of re-enriched uranium in a commercial LWR was in 1994 at the Cruas Nuclear Power Plant in France. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] In 2020, France, one of the countries with the biggest reprocessing capacity, held a stock of 40,020 tonnes (39,390 long tons; 44,110 short tons) of reprocessed uranium, up from 24,100 tonnes (23,700 long tons; 26,600 ...
Less than a formula quantity of strategic special nuclear material but more than 1,000 grams of uranium-235 (contained in uranium enriched to 20 percent or more in the U-235 isotope) or more than 500 grams of uranium-233 or plutonium-239, or in a combined quantity of more than 1,000 grams (2.2 pounds) when computed by the equation grams ...
Plutonium(IV) oxide, or plutonia, is a chemical compound with the formula Pu O 2. This high melting-point solid is a principal compound of plutonium . It can vary in color from yellow to olive green, depending on the particle size, temperature and method of production.