30 Kilos of plutonium missing from Sellafield

[MrMitty]

Hi all

Am I right in thinking that this type of Plutonium (as in spent fuel rods) is not any good for making a nuclear bomb?

Mr Mitty

[AdamR]

No, the plutonium itself is a by-product from reactors and gets sent away for re-processing and disposal or to be made into nasty atomic bombs. I don't think anyone has anything to worry about, it's probably an administrative error, some stupid twat will have missed a decimal point out somewhere or something like that. I'd find it very hard to believe that you could just walk out of that place with 30kg of plutonium let alone that someone wouldn't physically notice it were missing.

[speed freek]

Yeah they're saying its not physically lost, Just lost somewhere in the paperwork. Lets hope so anyway.

[Chappy]

Because terrorists will 'steal' it from over here instead of some developing third world country.

[MrMitty]

Cheers guys

[Mrs. Frank S.]

The Plutonium in spent fuel rods can be separated and made into weapons grade materials.

That is what N. Korea claims to have done.

run a seach on fuel rods and terrorism and you'll see what I mean.

[boothgraeme]

run a seach on fuel rods and terrorism and you'll see what I mean.

Then in a few days the police will kick down your door because they think a terrorist is researching how to make a nuclear device using your computer.

[Bliartheliar]

When the nuclear waste arrives at Sellafield, the plutonium is mixed in with all the other waste and the amount can only be estimated. After its been seperated, its not uncommon for the end amounts to be more or less than estimated. Someone has not simply walked out of the place with a suitcase of plutonium. I dont doubt that the tabloids will speculate over what might happen though.

[MrMitty]

Have the USA ever lost any atomic/nuclear stuff? I remember the film "broken arrow" in which the term broken arrow was one of many terms apparently used by the US government to describe varying types of nuclear loss.

Probably Hollywood crap but I thought I would ask!!

Thanks for your time guys.

Mitty

[Chappy]

The US Department of Defence (DoD) first published a list of nuclear weapon accidents in 1968 which detailed 13 serious nuclear weapon accidents between 1950-1968. An updated list released in 1980 catalogued 32 accidents. At the same time, documents released by the Navy under the Freedom of Information Act cited 381 nuclear weapon incidents between 1965 and 1977.

A number of nuclear cases involve ships or submarines colliding at sea or, in some cases, submarine nuclear power units becoming unstable and the subs having to be abandoned. According to Greenpeace there have been more than 120 submarine accidents since 1956. The most recent incident, in August 2000, was the loss of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea. The Kursk is the seventh nuclear submarine lost, five of them Russian, two American. There are 92 known cases of nuclear bombs lost at sea.

http://www.didyouknow.cd/nuclear.htm

hehe@me taking info from a 'didyouknow' website.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=lost+nuclear

[Vladek]

Finally a question here I can answer (I work in this industry)

The plutonium is in the fuel pins and is a byproduct of the nuclear fission that takes place in the reactors yes, however this type of plutonium is not weapons grade stuff and is not sutible for use in nuclear weapons as it has been in the reactor too long. Although yes it would make a bang its very unpredictable to the size of bang and if it would even go off to put it simpley.

To get weapons grade stuff you'd have to leave it in the core for shorter periods of time. Enrichment of Uranium to build bombs is very much a different process and doesn't envolve fission.

Anyhow it's simpley an accountancy issue, its merely good estimates as to how much plutonium is produced within the fuel during its time in the reactor, so when you extract it, it might appear that you've lost some where in realitiy it was never there. (Not sure if thats the case here though).