Re: for the close of all fission nuclear reactor in the world

On Feb 28, 11:17 pm, Terence <tbwri...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
*One method: heat it to about 700C, and what melts is the plutonium.
The required equipment is available in any high school metal shop that
can melt and cast aluminum.

If you're starting from fuel rods, you need robotic handling with with
no microchip sensors or computer chips within 100 metres at best. Even
the remote cameras will burn out due to the alpha partilce and show
lousy pictures due to the gamma. Did I mention that the equipment will
become part of the nuclear waste?


Not if you're starting with unused (new) fuel rods, which are only
moderately radioactive. The proliferation question revolves more
around the relative ease with which you can extract weapons grade
Pu239 from a U-238+Pu239 fuel rod. And certainly contamination will
be a big issue, but folks other than governments are likely to be
willing to play a bit fast and loose on that issue. I'm not saying
this is a trivial undertaking, especially not if you have plans for a
long life, but it's far easier than enriching uranium.

Of course making a crude nuke is easier with U235, with plutonium
you'll have to build a rather more sophisticated implosion-type
weapon. But the major difficulty is usually considered the
acquisition of the appropriate fissile material (70% U235 or Pu239),
not the construction of the weapon itself.

BTW, you don't need any cameras or microchips - 1945 vintage
technology and mechanical remote manipulators will do the trick just
fine. The biggest trick is decent containment in an oxygen poor
atmosphere due to plutonium's propensity for igniting during machining
and working.
.