SPECIAL NUCLEAR MATERIA L’Special nuclear material’ (SNM) is defined by Title I of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 as plutonium, uranium-233, or uranium enriched in the isotopes uranium-233 or uranium-235. In 1789, Uranium was discovered in the mineral called pitchblende, by a German chemist named Martin Klaproth. It was named after the planet Uranus, which had been discovered eight years earlier. Uranium-233 and plutonium are formed in nuclear reactors because they do not occur naturally.
It has to be taken from highly radioactive spent fuel by chemical separation. Uranium-233 can be produced in special reactors that use thorium as fuel. Only small quantities of uranium-233 have ever been made in the United States. No U. S. commercial plutonium reprocessing plant is currently licensed by the U.
S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for operation. Uranium enriched in uranium-235 is created by an enrichment facility. The NRC regulates two gaseous diffusion enrichment plants operated by the U. S. Enrichment Corporation.
The gaseous diffusion process is the current method used by the United States to enrich uranium. There are two gaseous diffusion plants in the United States. One is located in Portsmouth, Ohio but was shut down in March 2001, and the other is in Paducah, Kentucky. This plant has produced enriched uranium continuously since November 1952. It is operated by the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) which was created as a government corporation under the Energy Act of 1992 and privatized by legislation in 1996 Natural uranium contains 99% U 238 and only about 0. 7% U 235 by weight.
The Term Paper on Nuclear Energy
... greater than the protected area for most plants. (“Nuclear Terrorism”, 2) This represents the Nuclear Report Committee’s most feared result. At ... Abbots and Nader comment that uranium mill tailings is a byproduct of the enrichment process. Less than one fifth ... terrorists’ ideology. With more than 100 reactors in the United States alone, if one is successfully destroyed, just threatening additional ...
Gaseous Diffusion The uranium enriched in uranium-235 is required in commercial light water reactors to produce a controlled nuclear reaction. Gaseous diffusion is one way to enrich uranium. The gas separates by slowly flowing through small holes. (molecular effusion) In a vessel containing a mixture of two gases, molecules of the gas with lower molecular weight travel faster and strike the walls of the vessel more frequently. The walls of the vessel can be penetrated, so more of the lighter molecules flow through the barrier than the heavier molecules. The gas that escapes the vessel is enriched in the lighter isotope.
One barrier isn’t enough to do the job, though. It takes many hundreds of barriers, one after the other, before the UF 6 gas contains enough uranium-235 to be used in reactors. At the end of the process, the enriched UF 6 gas is withdrawn from the pipelines and condensed back into a liquid that is poured into containers. The UF 6 cools down and solidifies before it is transported to fuel fabrication facilities where it is turned into fuel assemblies for nuclear power reactors. The enriched uranium fuel begins in the form of a hard ceramic pellet about 1/2 in. long with the circumference of a pencil.
The pellets are put into zirconium tubes. 250 of these tubes are fastened together into fuel assemblies which are used in the nuclear reactor for about 18 months. Then the fuel elements inside the tubes lose their ability to produce enough energy to sustain a nuclear reactor. These uranium-bearing fuel elements inside are referred to as spent nuclear fuel.
Once the spent fuel is removed from the reactor the fission process has stopped, but the spent fuel assemblies still generate significant amounts of radiation and heat. Spent fuel is so hazardous, it must be shipped in containers or casks that shield and contain the radioactivity and drive away heat. Over the last 30 years, thousands of shipments of commercially generated spent nuclear fuel have been made throughout the United States without causing any radiological releases to the environment or harm to the public. Most of these shipments occur between different reactors owned by the same utility to share storage space for spent fuel, or they may be shipped to a research facility to perform tests on the spent fuel.
The Essay on Nuclear Reactors Fuel Rods
Nuclear Reactors Using a nuclear reactor is an efficient way to produce large amounts of electricity. Nuclear reactors are used to provide power to a neighboring town or city. In a nuclear reactor, water is heated using nuclear energy to the point that it boils and the steam collects around a collection of spinning blades, called a steam turbine. The pressure from the steam turns these blades, ...
In the near future, because of a potential high-level waste repository being built, the number of these shipments by road and rail is expected to increase. TYPICAL SPENT FUEL TRANSPORTATION CASKS Generic Truck Cask for Spent Fuel Typical Specifications Gross Weight (including fuel): 50, 000 pounds (25 tons) Cask Diameter: 4 feet Overall Diameter (including Impact Limiters): 6 feet Overall Length (including Impact Limiters): 20 feet Capacity: Up to 4 PWR or 9 BWR fuel assemblies Generic Rail Cask for Spent Fuel Typical Specifications Gross Weight (including fuel): 250, 000 pounds (125 tons) Cask Diameter: 8 feet Overall Diameter (including Impact Limiters): 11 feet Overall Length (including Impact Limiters): 25 feet Capacity: Up to 26 PWR or 61 BWR fuel assemblies This illustration shows the rail line (A) that will enter the PFS facility from the west and run to the cask transfer building (B).
There, the shipping casks will be removed from the rail cars. Then the storage canisters will be removed from the shipping casks and placed into steel and concrete storage casks. The storage casks will then be placed on three-foot thick reinforced concrete pads (C).
The concrete for the robust storage casks will be made on site at the batch plant (D).
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulates spent fuel transportation through a combination of safety and security requirements, certification of transportation casks, inspections, and a system of monitoring to ensure that requirements are being met. Regulated Materials Special Nuclear Material- consists of uranium-233 or uranium-235, enriched uranium, or plutonium o Source Material- natural uranium or thorium, or depleted uranium that is not suitable for use as reactor fuel o Byproduct Material- generally, nuclear material (other than special nuclear material) that is produced or made radioactive in a nuclear reactor. Also the tailings and waste produced by extraction or concentration of uranium or thorium from an ore processed primarily for its source material content. Works Cited web.
The Essay on The Information Age Is Upon Us The Raw Materials Are
The information age is upon us. The raw materials are ones and zeros. The technology used to transport the ones and zeros provides numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers. Telecommunications is dynamically changing the way we work, learn, communicate, and view society. At no other time in history have so many people been given the ability to exchange ideas, sell their ...
