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I'm not sure how this design, which produces plutonium, can be claimed to "support nonproliferation". Plutonium is not only highly toxic (which means it could
by raylad 4y ago
I'm not sure how this design, which produces plutonium, can be claimed to "support nonproliferation".
Plutonium is not only highly toxic (which means it could be used in a dirty bomb), but also highly fissionable and able to be made into nuclear weapons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium
- eurasiantiger 4y agoAgreed. All it takes is one operator extracting enriched rods once in a while to become proliferation.
- fastneutron 4y agoProliferation resistance in this case means that the level of effort needed to produce a weapon would be prohibitive to the point that it wouldn’t be possible to do without raising red flags to the international community early in the process. One need only look at recent case studies around the world to see that anyone who wants to proliferate is going to do it with the easiest available technologies. The plutonium produced in a traveling wave reactor is burned more or less in-situ as it generated. Extracting it would be a pretty destructive operation that would render the core inoperable and be visible to safeguards organizations. Beyond that, the isotope mix in reactor grade plutonium is typically unsuitable for anything but the crudest of weapons.