Evaluation Of Covert Plutonium Production From Unconventional Uranium Sources

The article examines ways of representing nuclear catastrophe in Kate Brown's Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters. In 1957 an explosion in the Mayak works - a plutonium production site - led to massive contamination of the surrounding areas. The event remained a closely kept secret till 1992, absent from the public sphere and cultural texts, despite the fact that the scale of contamination was as big as the Chernobyl explosion. One of the reasons for this was the difficulty of representing nuclear radiation. The author focuses on three contexts of this impossibility: in relation to the cognitive theory of the metaphor, the figure of the sick body as bearer of memory, and the invisibility of the nuclear landscape.

10. Mastery of Plutonium Production

Eating Grass ◽

10.1515/9780804784801-014 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 191-204

Keyword(s):

Plutonium Production

«Nuclear Alarms» at Korean Peninsula

World Economy and International Relations ◽

10.20542/0131-2227-2013-5-3-16 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 3-16

Author(s):

A. Fenenko

Keyword(s):

Nuclear Weapons ◽

Korean Peninsula ◽

North Korea ◽

Fuel Cycle ◽

Nuclear Fuel Cycle ◽

The United States ◽

Nuclear Facilities ◽

Military Conflict ◽

The Usa ◽

Plutonium Production

During the last twenty years Washington has used the “counter-proliferation strategy” in Korean Peninsula. The Americans demanded that North Korea eliminate its nuclear arsenals and plutonium production facilities under the watchful eye of the “five powers’ commission” or the IAEA. Pyongyang's recent military provocation may now raise the specter of the United States or even South Korea delivering non-nuclear strikes against its nuclear facilities. That would give the USA an opportunity to raise the question of whether certain regimes should be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons or even to develop nuclear fuel cycle capacity. The last crises demonstrated that under certain circumstances North Korea could also initiate a military conflict in East Asia.

A Graphite Isotope Ratio Method: A Primer on Estimating Plutonium Production in Graphite Moderated Reactors

10.2172/15010619 ◽

2004 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Christopher J Gesh

Keyword(s):

Isotope Ratio ◽

Ratio Method ◽

Plutonium Production

Uranium Sources

The Science News-Letter ◽

10.2307/3922098 ◽

1945 ◽

Vol 48 (7) ◽

pp. 101

Keyword(s):

Uranium Sources

The Long Shadow of Soviet PLUTONIUM PRODUCTION

Environment Science and Policy for Sustainable Development ◽

10.1080/00139157.1997.10544041 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 39 (1) ◽

pp. 12-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Boris Segerstahl ◽

Alexander Akleyev ◽

Vladimir Novikov

Keyword(s):

Plutonium Production

Pollution around the Mayak Plutonium Production Complex

Nuclear Hazards in the World ◽

10.1007/978-3-540-29038-4_2 ◽

2005 ◽

pp. 17-28

Author(s):

Jun Takada

Keyword(s):

Production Complex ◽

Plutonium Production

Release of Uranium from Uraninite in Granites Through Alteration: Implications for the Source of Granite-Related Uranium Ores

Economic Geology ◽

10.5382/econgeo.4822 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Long Zhang ◽

Zhenyu Chen ◽

Fangyue Wang ◽

Noel C. White ◽

Taofa Zhou

Keyword(s):

Uranium Concentration ◽

Geochemical Data ◽

Uranium Deposits ◽

Bulk Rock ◽

Calc Alkaline ◽

Alkaline Granite ◽

Compositional Evolution ◽

High K ◽

Backscattered Electron ◽

Uranium Sources

Abstract Uraninite is the main contributor to the bulk-rock uranium concentration in many U-rich granites and is the most important uranium source for granite-related uranium deposits. However, detailed textural and compositional evolution of magmatic uraninite in granites during alteration and associated uranium mobilization have not been well documented. In this study, textures and geochemistry of uraninites from the Zhuguangshan batholith (South China) were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA). The geochemical data indicate that the Longhuashan and Youdong plutons are peraluminous leucogranite, the Changjiang pluton is highly fractionated high-K calc-alkaline granite, and the Jiufeng pluton belongs to a high-K calc-alkaline association. Uraninites from the Longhuashan and Youdong granites have lower concentrations of ThO2 (0.9–4.0 wt %) and rare earth elements (REE)2O3 (0.1–1.0 wt %) than those from the Changjiang and Jiufeng granites (ThO2 = 4.4–7.6 wt %, REE2O3 = 0.7–5.1 wt %). Uraninites observed in the Longhuashan, Youdong, Changjiang, and Jiufeng granites yielded chemical ages of 223 ± 3, 222 ± 2, 157 ± 1, and 161 ± 2 Ma, respectively. The samples (including altered and unaltered) collected from the Longhuashan, Youdong, and Changjiang granites are characterized by highly variable whole-rock U concentrations of 6.9 to 44.7 ppm and Th/U ratios of 0.9 to 7.0, consistent with crystallization of uraninite in these granites being followed by uranium leaching during alteration. Alteration of uraninite, indicated by altered domains developing microcracks and appearing darker in backscattered electron (BSE) images compared to unaltered domains, results in the incorporation of Si and Ca and mobilization of U. In contrast, the least altered samples of the unmineralized Jiufeng granite have low U concentrations (5.3–16.4 ppm) and high ΣREE/U (13.6–49.4) and Th/U ratios (2.1–5.6), which inhibit crystallization of uraninite, as its crystallization occurs when the U concentration is high enough to exceed the substitution capacity of other U-bearing minerals. These results indicate that the Longhuashan, Youdong, and Changjiang granites were favorable uranium sources for the formation of uranium deposits in this area. This study highlights the potential of uraninite alteration and geochemistry to assist in deciphering uranium sources and enrichment processes of granite-related uranium deposits.

Verifying North Korea’s Plutonium Production with Nuclear Archaeology

Science & Global Security ◽

10.1080/08929882.2021.1999054 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 145-166

Author(s):

Julien de Troullioud de Lanversin ◽

Moritz Kütt

Keyword(s):

Plutonium Production

Mineral extinction

Mineralogical Magazine ◽

10.1180/mgm.2019.60 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 83 (5) ◽

pp. 621-625 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Stuart J. Mills ◽

Andrew G. Christy

Keyword(s):

Biological Evolution ◽

Time Dependent ◽

Mineral Species ◽

Geochronological Data ◽

Secondary Minerals ◽

Geological Record ◽

Biological Concept ◽

Secondary Species ◽

Mineral Occurrence ◽

Uranium Sources

Abstract‘Mineral evolution’ has attracted much attention in the last decade as a counterpart of the long-established biological concept, but is there a corresponding ‘mineral extinction’? We present new geochronological data from uranium-bearing secondary minerals and show that they are relatively recent, irrespective of the age of their primary uranium sources. The secondary species that make up much of the diversity of minerals appear to be ephemeral, and many may have vanished from the geological record without trace. Nevertheless, an ‘extinct’ mineral species can recur when physiochemical conditions are appropriate. This reversibility of ‘extinction’ highlights the limitations of the ‘evolution’ analogy. Mineral occurrence may be time-dependent but does not show the unique contingency between precursor and successor species that is characteristic of biological evolution.