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> Trucks carrying almost 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium had just left a nuclear facility I see a small problem with this statement, and with the pict
by simonebrunozzi 5y ago
> Trucks carrying almost 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium had just left a nuclear facility
I see a small problem with this statement, and with the picture at the beginning of the article.
Uranium is dense: 19.1 g/cm3. Enriched Uranium has a similar density, within a +/- 2% from "normal" Uranium.
It means that a cube of 600kg of enriched Uranium would be approx. 31cm x 31cm x 31cm. You don't need "trucks" for that.
- thealistra 5y agohave you taken into account the box to keep it safe to handle?
- jpgvm 5y ago... and the shielding to keep you safe from it and the fact that you need to package it into smaller chunks to prevent criticality, etc.
- grosswait 5y ago…and back to the mere weight and density. Yeah, it’ll fit in the back of your hatchback, but after dragging the rear for a few minutes, one good bump might punch it right through the floor.
- matthewdgreen 5y agoHmm. I wonder if there’s any downside to storing too much enriched uranium in a single solid cube.
- choeger 5y agoI cannot think of anything supercritical...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- GlumWoodpecker 5y agoPresumably, you'd need to store it in something, and have adequate protection against the radioactivity. I'm also reasonably convinced that storing highly dense (and volatile?) radioactive material as a condensed cube is a bad idea in many respects.
- HPsquared 5y agoYou wouldn't want to transport it as a solid cube, it needs to be spread out to avoid forming a critical mass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_core
- Etheryte 5y agoIn addition to all the other comments explaining why this would be a bad idea, this also misses a core point, uranium is rarely if ever transported in atomic form. What's usually transported is uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which has low levels of radioactivity.
- sandworm101 5y agoExcept that these seem to have been finished fuel pellets for the Alpha subs, subs with very hot lead-cooled reactors.
- gumby 5y agoThe article starts with the point that these were pellets, presumably each packaged safely on its own.
- escapecharacter 5y agoI want to print this out and frame it
- Dave3of5 5y agoThis is hilarious