Nuclear weapon safety

Materials Safety Medical Equipment Safety Mining Safety Nuclear Power Safety Nuclear Weapon Safety Occupational Safety Patient Safety Personnel Safety... 

Another safety issue to be considered which might be exacerbated in the reprocessing option is that the plutonium generated in power reactors, called reactor-grade plutonium because it is made up of a variety of plutonium isotopes, contains plutonium-241, which is subject to spontaneous fission (8). The mixture of isotopes makes it extremely difficult to build an effective nuclear weapon. However, an explosive device could be built using this mixture if control of detonation is sacrificed (48). 

Hazards Ahead Managing Cleanup Worker Health and Safety at the Nuclear Weapons Complex. U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment. Washington, DC U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993, pp. 3, 13. 

J. Larius, Nuclear Weapons Safety and the Common Defense , Ohio State Univ Press, Columbus (1967) 7) Anon, Nuclear Weapon , Van Nostrand s Scientific Encyclopedia, 4th Ed, D. Van Nostrand, Princeton, NJ (1968), 1220— 21 8) R.G, Hewlett F. Duncan, Atomic... 

Provide technical support to, and membership in, the, Army Nuclear Weapons System Safety Committee... 

Further improve proliferation resistance (PR) and safety. The essential elements to enhance nonproliferation of nuclear weapons or to suppress harmful usage of nuclear power are to (i) decrease the global inventory of separated fissile nuclides, including the existing warheads (ii) make the... 

Safety first has always been and continues to be the basic policy of the nuclear industry. This includes reactor safety by design as well as activities to discourage the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to prevent sabotage of nuclear facilities. This policy has been successful the chance of death from a nuclear accident is over a million times less than death... 

By 2040-2050, natural gas reserves will be in very short supply, and the production of coal will quite likely be approaching peak production levels.19. While nuclear power plants are a source of large scale electricity generation, there exist major concerns regarding uranium supply (without breeder reactors), safety, waste disposal, and nuclear weapon proliferation. Therefore, it is prudent to explore the economic feasibility of other fuel sources such as PV electrolytic H2 for centralized, electricity generating plants. 

Second bottleneck lies in the transportation capacity fuel elements that have been unloaded stay for many years in pools or in containers stored in the open air by want of transportation capacity. Those de facto intermediate storage lack the safety environment that would have been asked for if they had been conceived from the beginning as storage facilities they also lack correct physical protection and -though spent fuel from submarine is not the easiest way to a nuclear weapon - could thus attract the attention of terrorist organizations. 

Woolf, Amy F., Nuclear Weapons in Russia Safety, Security, and Control Issues, Congressional Research Service, IB98038, April 11, 2003. 

Going from one of the most sensitive of the aromatic explosives to one of the very least sensitive, we have TATB (Figure 3.18). This is a new, very insensitive, high explosive that is finding broad use in nuclear weapons development. The extreme degree of insensitiveness boosts the safety in handling and in accident situations, which is so crucial in that particular application. It is made by direct nitration of 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene to 1,3,5-trichloro-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene. This, in turn, is then converted to the 1,3,5-triamino- by amine substitution of the three chlorine atoms. 

The source of energy in a nuclear reactor is a fission reaction in which neutrons collide with nuelei of uranium-235 or plutonium-239 (the fuel), causing them to split apart. The products of a fission reaction include not only energy but also new elements (known as fission products) and free neutrons. A constant and reliable flow of neutrons is insured in the reactor by a moderator, which slows down the speed of neutrons, and by control rods, which limit the number of neutrons available in the reactor and, hence, the rate at which fission can occur. In a nuclear weapon, the fission chain reaction, once triggered, proceeds at an exponentially increasing rate, resulting in an explosion in a nuclear reactor, it proceeds at a steady, controlled rate. Most commercial nuclear power plants are incapable of undergoing an explosive nuclear chain reaction, even should their safety systems fail this is not true of all research reactors (e.g., some breeder reactors). 

In all, 193 experiences nucleaires (nuclear tests and safety trials) were conducted at the French nuclear weapon test site at Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls. Of these, 178 were nuclear tests , in which a nuclear device was exploded with a large release of fission and, in some cases, fusion energy and 15 were safety trials in which more or less fully developed nuclear devices were subjected to simulated accident conditions and the nuclear weapon cores were destroyed by means of conventional explosives, with no or—on a few occasions—very small releases of fission energy. 

Note An article regarding safety considerations involved in the nuclear weapons dismantling process was reported in the New York Times of 6/26/96, page A16. 

The proliferation of nuclear weapons rightly remains a major global concern. While there may be geopolitical merit in European countries leading by example (for instance, by unilaterally removing highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium from their civil nuclear activities), it is important to note that all EU countries are robust in their measures to prevent proliferation. Furthermore, any European member state decision to expand nuclear power would not raise the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation in any direct way. CESSA expresses no opinion on proliferation, safety and nuclear fuel cycles issues outside the EU. 

High Risk (Personal) Property property that, because of its potential impact on public health and safety, the environment, national security interests, or proliferation concerns, must be controlled, and dispositioned in other than the routine manner. The categories of high risk property are (1) Especially designed or prepared property, (2) Export controlled property, (3) Proliferation-sensitive property, (4) Nuclear weapon components or weapon-like components, (5) Hazardous property, (6) Automatic data processing equipment, (7) Export controlled information, (8) Radioactive property, (9) Special nuclear material, and (10) Unclassified controlled nuclear information. 

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