Plutonium fuels

Westinghouse Plutonium Fuels Demonstration Progress Report, Edison Electric Institute, ECAP-4167, Westinghouse Plutonium Fuels Development Laboratory, New York, 1970. 

In plutonium-fueled breeder power reactors, more plutonium is produced than is consumed (see Nuclearreactors, reactor types). Thus the utilisa tion of plutonium as a nuclear energy or weapon source is especially attractive to countries that do not have uranium-enrichment faciUties. The cost of a chemical reprocessing plant for plutonium production is much less than that of a uranium-235 enrichment plant (see Uranium and uranium compounds). Since the end of the Cold War, the potential surplus of Pu metal recovered from the dismantling of nuclear weapons has presented a large risk from a security standpoint. 

Plutonium compounds, 19 687-691 protection against, 19 702 Plutonium dioxide, 19 688—689 Plutonium fuel fabrication facilities, 17 547 Plutonium-gallium alloys, 19 683-684 Plutonium halides, 19 689-690 Plutonium hexafluoride, 19 689 Plutonium hydrides, 19 690 Plutonium ions... 

Uranium phosphates, 25 432-434 Uranium-phosphine coordination complexes, 25 436 Uranium pickling, 9 788 Uranium-plutonium fuels, 19 668... 

Nuclear fission power plants were at one time thought to be the answer to diminishing fossil fuels. Although the enriched uranium fuel was also limited, an advanced nuclear reactor called breeders would be able to produce more radioactive fuel, in the form of plutonium, than consumed. This would make plutonium fuel renewable. Although plutonium has been called one of the most toxic elements known, it is similar to other radioactive materials and requires careful handling since it can remain radioactive for thousands of years. 

Programme Progress Report Plutonium Fuels and Actinide Research , TUSR 27, Joint Research Center of the European Community, p. 102 (1979)... 

The plutonium fuel in a breeder reactor behaves differently than uranium. Fast neutrons are required to split plutonium. For this reason, water cannot be used in breeder reactors because it moderates the neutrons. Liquid sodium is typically used in breeder reactors, and the term liquid metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) is used to describe it. One of the controversies associated with the breeder reactor is that it results... 

In a typical fast breeder nuclear reactor, most of the fuel is 238U (90 to 93%). The remainder of the fuel is in the form of fissile isotopes, which sustain the fission process. The majority of these fissile isotopes are in the form of 239Pu and 241Pu, although a small portion of 235U can also be present. Because the fast breeder converts die fertile isotope 238 U into the fissile isotope 239Pu, no enrichment plant is necessary. The fast breeder serves as its own enrichment plant. The need for electricity for supplemental uses in the fuel cycle process is thus reduced. Several of the early hquid-metal-cooled fast reactors used plutonium fuels. The reactor Clementine, first operated in the Unired States in 1949. utilized plutonium metal, as did the BR-1 and BR.-2 reactors in the former Soviet Union in 1955 and 1956, respectively. The BR-5 in the former Soviet Union, put into operation in 1959. utilized plutonium oxide and carbide. The reactor Rapsodie first operated in France in 1967 utilized uranium and plutonium oxides. 

Some of the elements of war have found a place in peacetime. The same kind of reaction in uranium that makes an atomic bomb explode can be controlled to make electricity in a nuclear power plant. The Cassini spacecraft now orbiting the planet Saturn runs on plutonium fuel. Plutonium-based fuel was also used to power devices that the Apollo 14 astronauts left on the Moon, such as a seismometer left to detect movements of the Moons crust. The Voyager spacecraft also sent its golden record out to the stars with... 

The concluding fifth chapter compares the energy options available to mankind. It provides quantitative data on the present trends of C02 emissions, energy consumption and population growth and on the consequences of continued reliance on exhaustible (fossil and nuclear) energy sources. I also explain why dependence on thermal nuclear energy is likely to lead to dependence on plutonium-fueled breeder reactors. The chapter calculates the costs and time needed to convert to a totally renewable energy economy and also discusses the consequences of inaction. 

The fast breeder reactor cycle in this cycle, the spent fuel is similarly reprocessed and the uranium and plutonium fabricated into new fuel elements. However, they are recycled to fast breeder reactors, in which there is a central core of uranium/plutonium fuel surrounded by a blanket of depleted uranium (uranium from which most of the uranium-235 atoms have been removed during the process of enrichment) or to burner reactors. This depleted uranium consists mostly of uranium-238 atoms, some of which are converted to plutonium during irradiation. By suitable operation, fast breeder reactors thus can produce slightly more fuel than they consume, hence the name breeder (see Fig. 7.1). 

The production of plutonium fuel (plutonium-239) is a fascinating story. When nuclear reactors were first built, they all used uranium-235 as a fuel. Of the three naturally occurring isotopes of uranium, only uranium-235 will undergo fission. 

Components in the process of design and fabrication of ceramic plutonium fuels at Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory (HEDL) are displayed in Figure 5. The plan for the fuel fabrication demonstration facility at HEDL is shown in Figure 6. 

Figure 5. Typical plutonium fuel development considerations. (After Ref. 8.)...

Civex A Diversion-Proof Plutonium Fuel Cycle," EPRI... 

Bell, J. T. In "Proceedings of the ANS Topical Meeting on the Plutonium Fuel Cycle", 1977 CONF-7705061. (c) Rofer-DePoorter,... 

Flowers, R. H., Johnson, K. D. B., Miles, J. H., and Webster, R. K., "Possible Long Term Options for the Fast Reactor Plutonium Fuel Cycle," Paper presented at the 5th Energy Technology Conf., Washington, D. C., 1978. 

Toth, L. M., Friedman, H. A., and Bell, J. T., "Photochemical Separation of Actinides in the Purex Process," Paper presented at the Plutonium Fuel Cycle Mtg., Bal Harbour, FL., 1977. 

Heavy Element Separation for Thorium-Uranium-Plutonium Fuels... 

Lloyd, M. H. "Chemical Behavior of Plutonium in LWR Fuel Reprocessing Solutions." Conference Plutonium Fuel Cycle Process, ANS National Topical Melting, Miami, Florida,... 

The extended radiation time for the domestic fuel increases the quantity of fission products and the higher actinides. Pure plutonium product poses nuclear weapons proliferation risk and is the primary reason reprocessing is not practiced in the United States. The modified PUREX process has been practiced on an industrial scale in Europe and supports the production of mixed uranium-plutonium fuel. Blended UO2 and PUO2 powder is compacted and sinter to form the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel pellets much like the enriched UO2 fuel. Natural and depleted uranium can be used to prepare MOX fuel and is the demonstrated option to recover fuel values from spent fuel. 

Actinide Radioactivity in Uranium and Uranium-Plutonium Fuel... 

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