Laka Foundation

Publication Laka-library:
The ultimate disposal of fissile materials from nuclear weapons (1991)

AuthorSANA, R.D.Haaridon
Date1991
Classification 6.01.2.56/21 (PLUTONIUM - MOX & POSSIBLE RE-USE WEAPONS PU / HEU)
Front

From the publication:

1 ABSTRACT

Current nuclear arms reductions, which so far involve only delivery vehicles 
rather than warheads, will stall unless a mechanism can be established to bring 
the warheads under international supervision and eventually to dispose of the 
fissile materials they contain. A major difficulty is that the nuclear powers 
will not disclose the exact amount of fissile material in each type of warhead.

The first stage of the process will be to tag and seal each warhead, as it is removed 
from the delivery vehicle, to ensure that it remains under surveillance. The next 
stage will be to disassemble the warheads in secure sites, with controls on all 
entrances and exits, to ensure that all the fissile material contained in the 
warheads is eventually brought under IAEA-type surveillance.

Uranium 235 can be utilised as fuel for civil nuclear reactors: isotopic dilution 
would ensure that it could not be re-assembled into warheads before disposal. 
A complication is that weapons-grade U235 is needed as fuel for certain types 
of naval propulsion-reactors.

Plutonium might also be used as reactor fuel, but the best way of using it in this 
way has yet to be determined. Some reactor fuel-cycles have the disadvantage, 
from the point of view of nuclear arms-control, that they would perpetuate the 
existence of plutonium indefinitely. There is also no certain method of denaturing 
plutonium, short of mixing it with high-level radioactive waste, to make it 
unsuitable for weapons use: although nearly pure plutonium 239 is preferred 
for this purpose, any mixture of plutonium isotopes is capable of producing an 
explosion. The alternative to using plutonium as reactor fuel would be to dispose 
of it as high-level radioactive waste.

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