Uranium, yellow-cake, centrifuges & Atomic Bombs

[diamond14]

Uranium

This "very tiny" summary of Uranium is for everybody who wants to know more about "yellow-cake", centrifuges, atomic bombs, plutonium and all that.

As our National debate continues on the bush* "yellowcake" lies, a CHEMIST has stepped up to present an overview. So here it is, with very fascinating links for all you "science buffs", who want to explore further.

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Uranium (Element #92, abbreviated "U", named after the Planet Uranus)
Plutonium (Element #94, abbreviated "Pu", named after the Planet Pluto)

When highly purified into suitable chemical forms, BOTH these elements (U and Pu) can be used to generate power in a Nuclear Power Plant. In a different chemical form, BOTH these elements can be used to make NUCLEAR BOMBS. Both elements are radioactive, meaning that they emit dangerous radiation for thousands of years (radiation is high energy particles that disrupt molecular structures, causing your body chemistry to malfunction in many ways, often forming cancers)

Uranium exists in the earth, and can be located and mined by geologists.

Plutonium is a "human-made" element, that only exists where scientists created it.

The first Plutonium was created by the USA for making nuclear bombs in WWII. (That let the genie out of the bottle, creating an element! We have "poisoned ourselves" with major environmental damage, from an insidious world-class toxicant. For over 50 years now, discussions continue over what to do with Pu, where to store it, and how to clean up this mess).

There are essentially two BIG steps to making a nuclear bomb:

1. Extract Uranium from the ground, process and extract it to make "yellowcake"

2. Chemically separate the Uranium isotopes, and purify those chemicals. Once purified, U can then be used by itself for a nuclear bomb, as the Hiroshima bomb) or take it further, in a nuclear reaction to create Plutonium (as the Nagasaki bomb). Either U or Pu can also be used to generate power in nuclear power plants.

These are VERY COMPLEX, dangerous and expensive steps. The closer that you get to the final purified U or Pu, the more valuable the chemical compounds become, and the more dangerous. The more steps are completed, the easier to make a nuclear bomb from it. "Yellowcake" is light-years away from a final nuclear bomb, but the possession of yellowcake eliminates ONE difficult step.

Here'e a good flowchart showing the process (for power production "nuclear materials", but the process is essentially the same to create "nuclear materials" for ATOMIC BOMBS, which are now called Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

http://www.usec.com/v2001_02/HTML/Aboutusec_fuelcycle.asp





Uranium is removed from the earth in mining operations. After removing it from the earth, the ore must be processed using chemicals to extract the actual Uranium.

Here is info on mining Uranium, the production process: from blasting to shipping…
http://www.rossing.com/uranium_production.htm

A huge amount of rock must be processed to get a tiny bit of Uranium, which is then called "yellowcake", because it's a yellow compressed powder. The mining leaves a huge environmental mess, as shown here.



Geologists call these Uranium chemical compounds: Minerals, and have "geological names", while chemists have a very organized naming system that allows you to draw the chemical structure and predict the chemical reactions.

Here's a list (with some pictures) of different chemical forms of Uranium, with the geological names, and the chemical formulas…
http://webmineral.com/chem/Chem-U.shtml



There are TWO kinds of reactions that Uranium undergoes

1. Chemical reactions with other compounds, such as sulfur, oxygen, fluorine, and nitrogen. If you hit element 92, you can explore all the chemical forms of Uranium, and many crystal structures, Uranium - sulfides, oxides, fluorides and more…(on the left side), and the colors of each chemical compound.
http://www.webelements.com/

2. Nuclear Reactions. Physicists change the number of neutrons in the center of the atom, and create NEW elements. For Uranium (Atomic Number 92), the physicist adds two neutrons to create Plutonium (Atomic Number 94).

Before the physicists can create Plutonium, or use Uranium for a nuclear bomb, it must be purified by a very complex, environmentally damaging series of chemical extractions. The manufacturing plants for this process are VERY large, and in the USA, include the Hanford Plant in Washington, the Rocky Flats plant in Denver, Oak Ridge in Tennessee, the Pantex Plant in the Pan Handle of Texas, and more….with a variety of other manufacturing plant making components like electrical and explosives. These plants are not "mobile" and cannot be "hidden". Two examples are shown: 1) WMD plant, and 2) Nuclear Power plant.

1. An example of just ONE plant is shown here (the actual "enrichment" was done at Hanford and Oakridge, other HUGE Nuclear Weapons Manufacturing Facilities. Rocky Flats only did the "clean-up" of the Nuclear Materials that were sent from Hanford)

WMD Plant: Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant
http://www.em.doe.gov/bemr96/rfts.html




Read more about the chemical separation of Uranium isotopes, and the creation of Plutonium:
http://www.uic.com.au/nip50.htm


2. In these links, you can see a second type of Uranium isotope use, that of creating power. Centrifuges similar to these are used to separate U for Atomic BOMBS. Multiple banks of high tech centrifuges are necessary, one centrifuge will NOT do it.

Here's some pictures showing how Uranium enrichment works. These are very challenging chemical reactions, involving HOT Hydrofluoric Acid ( HF - a chemical that "eats" through glass, plastics, steel and more…HF also "eats" through humans, damaging nerves, so that the person will not feel the burning and can not know of the damage as it progresses…HF is a very dangerous chemical to work with.)
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf28.htm


The large Tricastin enrichment plant in France (beyond cooling towers)
The four nuclear reactors in the foreground provide over 3000 MWe power for it.


A bank of centrifuges at a Urenco plant


Here is a site that covers the complex history of Uranium and Plutonium in bombs..
http://www.atomicarchive.com/


After chemical purification in these HUGE manufacturing facilities, nuclear reactions are used to create Plutonium. For Uranium (Atomic Number 92), the physicist adds two neutrons to create Plutonium (Atomic Number 94). This step is done with a NUCLEAR REACTOR. The link below (U of Missouri -Rolla), explains the processes that go on in the nuclear reactor to create Plutonium


here's pics of the interior of the Nuclear Reactor at the U of Missouri - Rolla.
http://web.umr.edu/~reactor/

Plutonium manufacture and fabrication
http://nuketesting.enviroweb.org/hew/Library/Plutonium/


Pu and U are always emitting radiation continuously for thousands of years.
These emissions are primarily dangerous alpha, beta, and gamma rays that damage cells, quickly, causing radiation burns/poisoning, and long-term, causing cancers.

here's another "Periodic Chart of the Elements" with links on bottom to explain everything (from the chemists at Los Alamos Nuclear Laboratories)
http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/default.htm

if you like pretty green-yellow glass, here is a link to the "Uranium Glass Gallery" where you can learn more about exotic collector glass made with radioactive Uranium. Although some people won't mind drinking their wine out of a radioactive glass, others do object to being radioactively poisoned as they drink. Beautiful glasses, though.
http://www.parkcity.ne.jp/~ken-toma/

In recent news stories, Uranium and Plutonium have been called radionuclides, nuclear materials and radioactive isotopes and more. All of these names are correct, but emphasize different properties of the U and Pu. Because these atoms are so BIG and heavy (atoms are smallest at the top of the Periodic Chart and biggest at the bottom), they are also called "heavy" metals.

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Here is little background on "The Atom", so you can better understand the terminology and the reactions:

1. The nucleus (the center) of an atom is composed of positively-charged particles called "protons" and neutral particles called "neutrons".

2. The atomic number is the number of protons found in the nucleus. For example: Uranium is Atomic Number 92, which means that there are 92 protons in the nucleus (92 - positively charged particles in the center of the atom).
Plutonium is Atomic Number 94, which means that there are 94 protons in the nucleus.

3. Electrons are negatively charged particles that circulate continuously around the center of the atom, like the planets circulating around the sun. Chemical reactions often use the outermost electrons to join elements to each other.

4. Isotopes are atoms that have the same number of protons (positive-charged particles), and that gives the isotopes the SAME Atomic Number. But, the isotopes have different numbers of neutrons (neutral particles). Uranium has 14 isotopes, all are radioactive. The isotopes are commonly written as U-235 (meaning that there are 235 neutrons in that isotope) or U-238 (meaning that there are 238 neutrons in that isotope).

Both U and Pu are very chemically reactive. As a metal, these elements chemically react on contact with air, which is called "pyrophoric". This property has caused many fires and explosions when handling the purified metal. Even in other chemical forms, the continuous emission of radioactivity eats through almost all materials: glass, steel, plastics. U and Pu are dangerous, both for their chemical and nuclear properties. Pu is so chemically reactive, it reacts with virtually every non-metal in the Periodic Table of the Elements, except the Nobel Gases.

To conduct any of the nuclear reactions, one must first clean-up (purify) the chemical compounds. The purification processes are very complex, dangerous, and toxic.

nuclear fission from the chemists…
http://www.chemsoc.org/timeline/pages/1945.html

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There are TWO nuclear problems going on in the bush* Iraq debacle.

1. The bush* claim that "yellowcake" was being purchased from Niger to make nuclear bombs in Iraq. Recently, bush* minions admitted that this claim is a lie.

2. A defunct nuclear plant in Iraq, inspected and regulated by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Commission). During the war, the scientists all left. The plant was NOT protected by American soldiers (as they were busy protecting the OIL ministry), and the plant was vandalized. This resulted in many unsuspecting people being poisoned by the "yellowcake" left in drums, as they took the drums to store their drinking water. These people will DIE horrible deaths. In addition, there is now a "missing" yellowcake and other radioactive materials, such as purified Uranium (that may be used to make nuclear bombs).

This bush* mess is extremely dangerous for the whole world, since these nuclear materials could be in the hands of terrorists, with the looting of the plant.

about the IAEC (International Atomic Energy Agency
http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/About/Profile/

the IAEA and Tuwaitha and Rashdiya facilities in Iraq
(It appears that Iraq bought yellowcake before, but Iraq never has been able to develop the necessary technology to turn yellowcake into purified Uranium or Plutonium, which is necessary to make atomic bombs. There was yellowcake at the looted defunct facilities in Iraq. Much more dangerous is: there are reports of completely purified nuclear materials, and WHERE DID THOSE NUCLEAR MATERIAL GO TO?)

The IAEA reports, as of December 1998:
" There were no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of amounts of weapons-usable nuclear material of any practical significance."

http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Programmes/ActionTeam/nwp2.html




massive storeroom full of Plutonium in containers at Rocky Flats
(America has plenty of Plutonium, and we have NO IDEA where to store all this
and the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. Bush* decided recently to start producing MORE Plutonium).


The end product of this entire process: Plutonium buttons to make bombs


photo of the refined Plutonium "buttons" used in the Fat Man Bomb to destroy Nagasaki, made by the USA. Notice the "pitting" of the button on the right, showing the effect of the continuing dangerous chemical reactions.

Now, with Plutonium production done, there are still several more steps including creating the actual atomic bomb (A high tech effort to create the nuclear explosion from the Pu. If this is not done right, no nuclear explosion will occurs.). Then, you need to deliver the bomb….all that are subjects not covered in this review….

[Throckmorton]

1. Nice Primer,

and always remember, "When in Doubt, shim it out"

Throckmorton, MIT Class of 1981

[diamond14]

4. what does that mean?: when in doubt, shim it out......nt

.

[JonasQuinn]

2. Errata

Chemically separate the Uranium isotopes, and purify those chemicals.

U238 and U235 (the fissile material) are chemically identical, and cannot be separated by chemical processes. They have to be separated by physical processes based on their different masses using cetrifuges, gaseous diffusion, and ion chromatography.

For Uranium (Atomic Number 92), the physicist adds two neutrons to create Plutonium (Atomic Number 94).

Atomic number tells you the number of protons, not electrons. In a nuclear reacotr, U238 is bombarded with neutrons. It absorbs one neutron, and becomes U239, which is extremely unstable. It then decays (via beta emissions) to Pu239.

[diamond14]

3. chemical separations are COOL....very feasible, easy, cheap...

(thanks for your constructive criticism, it is always greatly appreciated)

there are TWO separate chemical separations:

1. The chemical separation of the Uranium isotopes (all isotopes) from the yellowcake. This is done with a series of chemical reactions to create the UF6.

2. The UF6 contains several Uranium isotopes, the primary being U-238 and U-235. Of course, these can also be chemically separated. It's only the defense contractors that choose the expensive, complex approach. If they thought about it much, they would ask a chemist how to do it....chemists have the solutions...

here's a link to all the methods

-snip-

Chemical and Ion Exchange

Chemical-exchange isotope separation requires segregation of two forms of an element into separate but contacting streams. Since many contacts are required to achieve the desired separation, the contacting process must be fast and achieve as much separation as possible. For heavy elements such as uranium, achieving a suitable separation factor involves contact between two valence (oxidation state) forms such as hexavalent and the quadrivalent . The 235 U isotope exhibits a slight preference for the higher valence, for example, the hexavalent over the quadrivalent in the Asahi process or the quadrivalent over the trivalent (U 3+ ) in the French solvent-extraction process.

http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/uranium.htm

My explanation of the nuclear reactions was deliberately over-simplified. It was late when I wrote it, and you are correct, that there are more PROTONS, not Neutrons. Under my section on the atom, I explained that the number of protons is the Atomic Number of the element.

Your explanation is a bit more detailed, but lacks the existence of the Element Neptunium, an important step in the transition of Uranium to Plutonium. Anyhow, you still end up with the element Pu, which has 94 protons, TWO more than U, which has 92 protons. There are links to the complete series of reactions for those real serious scientists (like you and me....are you a physicist? ) I thought you might like the nuclear reactor link from U of Missouri - Rolla....

thanks again for your comments, I greatly appreciate the input...
will fix up my report and repost later, since it's too late to add changes now...I have several other changes to add for clarity....(can't figure out why this is all underlined, it wasn't my intention)