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a) Russia plans to conquer Ukraine and use its resources. Nuclear power plants are very expensive and critical to industry. Russia wants to capture these for th

a) Russia plans to conquer Ukraine and use its resources. Nuclear power plants are very expensive and critical to industry. Russia wants to capture these for their own use, not blow them up and irradiate the countryside that they wish to be a part of their own country! b) Active reactors contain very "hot" decay products that are very bad for your health if atomised by an explosion and spread around. Chernobyl is the prototypical example of this. Enriched Uranium is less radioactive than natural Uranium, that's the point! Natural Uranium would "trigger itself" prematurely due to its constant background decay radiation.

tgv 1y ago
My knowledge in these matters is limited, but natural uranium can't trigger itself, can it? At least, it can't produce the classical chain reaction, as there's not enough U235 to sustain it, I think.
- aaronmdjones 1y ago
  > but natural uranium can't trigger itself, can it? Right now? Not that we know of. Historically? Yes. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/meet-oklo-the-earths-two-billion-year-old-only-known-natural-nuclear-reactor https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/meet-oklo-the-earths-tw...
  - tgv 1y ago
    2B years ago, the U235/U238 ratios were different. Isn't that (part of) the explanation?
    - jwilk 1y ago
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor#Mechanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reacto... says: > A key factor that made the reaction possible was that [back then] the fissile isotope ²³⁵U made up about 3.1% of the natural uranium, which is comparable to the amount used in some of today's reactors.
jwilk 1y ago
> Enriched Uranium is less radioactive than natural Uranium [citation needed]
mrs6969 1y ago
So if russia do not want it as part of their country, and if it was not that level of radioactive, that would justify such attack ? So, attacking a nuclear facility is valid if they are not that radioactive (since you are attacking you are not planning to use it anyway) Did I get your answer correctly ?

tgv 1y ago

My knowledge in these matters is limited, but natural uranium can't trigger itself, can it? At least, it can't produce the classical chain reaction, as there's not enough U235 to sustain it, I think.

aaronmdjones 1y ago
> but natural uranium can't trigger itself, can it? Right now? Not that we know of. Historically? Yes. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/meet-oklo-the-earths-two-billion-year-old-only-known-natural-nuclear-reactor https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/meet-oklo-the-earths-tw...
- tgv 1y ago
  2B years ago, the U235/U238 ratios were different. Isn't that (part of) the explanation?
  - jwilk 1y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor#Mechanism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reacto... says: > A key factor that made the reaction possible was that [back then] the fissile isotope ²³⁵U made up about 3.1% of the natural uranium, which is comparable to the amount used in some of today's reactors.

jwilk 1y ago

> Enriched Uranium is less radioactive than natural Uranium [citation needed]

mrs6969 1y ago

So if russia do not want it as part of their country, and if it was not that level of radioactive, that would justify such attack ? So, attacking a nuclear facility is valid if they are not that radioactive (since you are attacking you are not planning to use it anyway) Did I get your answer correctly ?