Reactor-grade plutonium

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Reactor-grade plutonium is found in spent nuclear fuel that a nuclear reactor has irradiated (burnup/burnt up) for years before removal from the reactor, in contrast to the low burnup of weeks or months that is commonly required to produce weapons-grade plutonium, with the high time in the reactor(high burnup) of reactor-grade plutonium leading to transmutation of much of the fissile, relatively long half-life isotope 239Pu into a number of other isotopes of plutonium that are less fissile or more radioactive.

Thermal-neutron reactors (today's nuclear power stations) can reuse reactor-grade plutonium only to a limited degree as MOX fuel, and only for a second cycle; fast-neutron reactors, of which there is less than a handful operating today, can use reactor-grade plutonium fuel as a means to reduce the transuranium content of spent nuclear fuel/nuclear waste.

The degree to which typical Generation II reactor high burn-up produced reactor-grade plutonium is less useful than weapons-grade plutonium for building nuclear weapons is somewhat debated, with many sources arguing that the maximum probable theoretical yield would be bordering on a fizzle explosion of the range 0.1 to 2 kiloton in a Fat Man type device, that is, assuming the non-trivial issue of dealing with the heat generation from the higher content of non-weapons usable Pu-238, that is present, could be overcome, as the premature initiation from the spontaneous fission of Pu-240 would ensure a low explosive yield in such a device, with the surmounting of both issues being described as "daunting" hurdles for a Fat Man era implosion design and the possibility of terrorists achieving this fizzle yield being regarded as an "overblown" apprehension with the safeguards that are in place.[1][2][3][4][5]

While others disagree on theoretical grounds and state that dependable high, non-fizzle level yields, can be achieved,[6][7][8] arguing that it would be "relatively easy" for a well funded entity with access to fusion boosting tritium and expertise to overcome the problem of predetonation created by Pu-240, and that a remote manipulation facility could be utilized in the assembly of the highly radioactive gamma ray emitting bomb components, coupled with a means of cooling the weapon pit during storage to prevent the plutonium charge contained in the pit from melting, and a design that kept the implosion mechanisms high explosives from being degraded by the pits heat. However with all these major design considerations included, this fusion boosted reactor grade plutonium primary will still fizzle if the fission component of the primary does not deliver more than 0.2 kilotons of yield, which is regarded as the minimum energy necessary to start a fusion burn.[9] The probability that such a device would fail to achieve this threshold yield increases as the burnup value of the fuel increases.[6]

No information, available in the public domain, suggests that any well funded entity has ever achieved, or seriously pursued creating, a nuclear weapon with the same isotopic composition of modern, high burn up, reactor grade plutonium. All nuclear weapon states have taken the more conventional path to nuclear weapons by either uranium enrichment or producing low burn up, "fuel-grade" and weapons-grade plutonium, in reactors capable of operating as production reactors. While the isotopic content of reactor-grade plutonium, created by the most common commercial power reactor design, the pressurized water reactor, never directly being considered for weapons use.

As of April 2012, there were thirty-one countries that have civil nuclear power plants,[10] of which nine have nuclear weapons, and almost every nuclear weapons state began producing weapons first instead of commercial nuclear power plants. Moreover, the re-purposing of civilian nuclear industries for military purposes would be a breach of the Non-proliferation treaty.

Classification by isotopic composition[edit]

<1976 >1976
<7% Weapons grade
7-19% Reactor grade Fuel grade
>19% Reactor grade

The difference is important in assessing significance in the context of nuclear proliferation. Reprocessing of LWR (PWR or BWR) spent fuel recovers reactor grade plutonium (as defined since 1976), not fuel grade.

Percentages are of each nuclide's total transmutation rate in a LWR, which is low for many nonfissile actinides. After leaving reactor only decay occurs.

The DOE definition of reactor grade plutonium changed in 1976. Before this, three grades were recognised, the change in definition for reactor grade, from describing plutonium with greater than 7% Pu-240 content prior to 1976, to reactor grade, being defined as containing 19% or more Pu-240; coincides with the 1977 release of information about a 1962 "reactor grade nuclear test".

  • Super weapons grade, less than 3% Pu-240,
  • Weapons grade, less than 7% Pu-240 and
  • Reactor grade, 7% or more Pu-240.

From 1976, four grades were recognised:

  • Super weapons grade, less than 3% Pu-240
  • Weapons grade, less than 7% Pu-240,
  • Fuel grade, 7% to 19% Pu-240 and
  • Reactor grade, more than 19% Pu-240.[11]

The physical mixture of isotopes in reactor-grade plutonium make it extremely difficult to handle and form and therefore explain its unsuitability as a weapon-making substance, in contrast to weapons grade plutonium, which can be handled relatively safely with thick gloves.[11]

To produce weapons grade plutonium, the uranium nuclear fuel must spend no longer than around several weeks in the reactor core before being removed, creating a low fuel burnup. For this to be carried out in for example, a pressurized water reactor - the most common reactor design for electricity generation - the reactor would have to prematurely reach cold shut down after only recently being fueled, meaning that the reactor would need to cool decay heat and then have its reactor pressure vessel be depressurized, followed by a fuel rod defueling. If such an operation were to be conducted, it would be easily detectable,[11] and require prohibitively costly reactor modifications.[2]

One such example of how this process would be detected in PWRs, is that during these periods, there would be a considerable amount of down time, that is, large stretches of time that the reactor is not producing electricity to the grid.[12] On the other hand, the modern definition of "reactor grade" plutonium is produced only when the reactor is run at high burnups and therefore producing a high electricity generating capacity factor. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2009 the capacity factor of US nuclear power stations was higher than all other forms of energy generation, with nuclear reactors producing power approximately 90.3% of the time and Coal thermal power plants at 63.8%, with down times being for simple routine maintenance and refuelling.[13]

"Reactor-grade" plutonium nuclear tests[edit]

The reactor grade plutonium nuclear test was a "low-yield (under 20 kilotons)" underground nuclear test using non-weapons-grade plutonium, conducted at the US Nevada Test Site in 1962.[14] Some information regarding this test was declassified in July 1977 under instructions from President Jimmy Carter as background to his decision to prohibit nuclear reprocessing in the USA.

The plutonium used for the US-UK 1962 device was apparently sourced from the military Magnox reactors at Calder Hall or Chapelcross in the United Kingdom, and provided to the US under the 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement.[14] Only two US-UK underground nuclear tests occurred in 1962, the first being test shot Pampas of Operation Nougat which produced a yield of 9.5 kilotons and the second being test shot Tendrac of Operation Storax, which produced a yield cited as being "low"(under 20 kilotons).[15] Another "reactor-grade" test, though not necessarily of the same US-UK 1962 design and plutonium-240 content, is the 1953 British Operation Totem series of nuclear tests, despite producing a yield of 8-10 kilotons, from a Plutonium-239 content estimated at from 87-91%,[16] something about the test(s) displeased the British, for they never went through with their plan to weaponize Plutonium from magnox reactors at Calder Hall.[17] More recently, the 2006 North Korean nuclear test, is also said to have had a Magnox reactor as the root source of its plutonium, from Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center in North Korea, which resulted in the creation of a low yield fizzle explosion, producing an estimated yield of approximately 0.48 kilotons,[18] from an undisclosed isotopic composition.

Similarly, the isotopic composition of the 1962 US-UK test has not been disclosed, other than the description reactor grade and it has not been disclosed which definition was used in describing the material for this test as reactor grade.[14] According to Alexander DeVolpi, the isotopic composition of the plutonium used in the US-UK 1962 test could not have been what we now consider to be reactor-grade, and that the DOE now implies, but doesn't assert, that the plutonium was fuel grade.[19] Likewise, the World Nuclear Association suggests that the US-UK 1962 test had at least 85% plutonium-239, a much higher isotopic concentration than what is typically present in the spent fuel from the majority of operating civilian reactors.[20]

Typical isotopic composition of reactor grade plutonium[edit]

The British Magnox reactor, a Generation I gas cooled reactor(GCR) design, can rarely produce a fuel burnup of more than 2-5 GWd/tU.[21][22] The Magnox reactor design was codenamed PIPPA (Pressurised Pile Producing Power and Plutonium) by the UKAEA to denote the plant's dual commercial(power reactor) and military(production reactor) role.

In contrast, for example, a generic civilian Pressurized water reactor's spent nuclear fuel isotopic composition, following a typical Generation II reactor 45 GWd/tU of burnup, is 1.11% plutonium of which 0.56% is Pu-239, and 0.28% is Pu-240, which corresponds to a Pu-239 content of 50.5% and a Pu-240 content of 25.2%.[23] For a lower generic burn-up rate of 43,000 MWd/t, as published in 1989, the plutonium-239 content was 53% of all plutonium isotopes in the reactor spent nuclear fuel.[24]

As the above two examples display, the odd numbered fissile plutonium isotopes present in spent nuclear fuel, such as Pu-239, decrease significantly as a percentage of the total composition of all plutonium isotopes(which was 1.11% in the first example above) as higher and higher burnups take place, while the even numbered non fissile plutonium isotopes all increase in percentage - e.g. Pu-238, Pu-240 and Pu-242.[25]

As power reactor technology increases, a goal is to reduce the spent nuclear fuel volume by increasing fuel efficiency and simultaneously reducing down times as much as possible to increase the economic viability of electricity generated from nuclear power. The reactors in the U.S. have doubled their average burn-up rates from 20-25 GWd/MTU in the 1970s to over 45 GWd/MTU in the 2000s.[22][26] With under construction generation III reactors having a designed for burnup rate in the 60 GWd/tU range and a need to refuel once every 2 years or so. For example, the European Pressurized Reactor has a designed for 65 GWd/t,[27] and the AP1000 has a designed for average discharge burnup of 52.8 GWd/t and a maximum of 59.5 GWd/t.[27] With in design phase generation IV reactors with burnup rates yet higher still.

Reuse in reactors[edit]

Fast neutron reactors can use plutonium of any isotopic composition.

Reprocessing was planned in the US in the 1960s when planners expected the uranium market to become tight and fast breeder reactors to be needed to efficiently use uranium supplies. This became less urgent with reduced demand forecasts and increased uranium supplies, and commercial deployment of fast reactors was postponed.

Today's thermal reactors can reuse plutonium to a limited degree as MOX fuel, which is common outside the US. Some reactors limit MOX fuel to a fraction of the total fuel load for nuclear stability reasons. Only the odd-mass isotopes of plutonium are fissile with thermal neutrons, and the even-mass isotopes accumulate. Plutonium-240 is a fertile material like uranium-238, becoming plutonium-241 on neutron capture, but plutonium-242 both has a low neutron capture cross section, and would require 3 neutron captures before becoming a fissile nuclide.

A 5.3% plutonium MOX fuel produced by reprocessing a 33 GWd/t of burn up spent nuclear fuel creates, when it itself is burnt, a spent nuclear fuel with a plutonium isotopic composition of 40.8% Pu-239 and 30.6% Pu-240, with the rest being 14.9% Pu-241, 10.6% Pu-242 and 3.1% Pu-238.[28]

Nuclear terrorism target[edit]

Aum Shinrikyo, who succeeded in developed Sarin and VX nerve gas is regarded to have lacked the technical expertise to develop, or steal, a nuclear weapon. Similarly, Al Qaeda was exposed to numerous scams involving the sale of radiological waste and other non-weapons-grade material. With the RAND corporation suggesting that their repeated experience of failure and being scammed has possibly lead to terrorists concluding that nuclear acquisition is too difficult and too costly to be worth pursuing.[29]

External links[edit]


  1. ^ American Physical Society Bombs, Reprocessing, and Reactor Grade Plutonium Gerald E. Marsh and George S. Stanford
  2. ^ a b
  3. ^ "American Physical Society Volume 25, Number 4 October 1996 ARTICLES, A Coverup of Nuclear Test Information? A. DeVolpi". 
  4. ^ "A letter (unpublished) from A. DeVolpi to Physics and Society. Published here with Dr. DeVolpi's permission. Response to "Usability of Reactor-grade Plutonium in Nuclear Weapons: A Reply to Alex DeVolpi" in Physics and Society, Vol 26(3) (10 July 1997): by A. DeVolpi, Woodridge, IL". 
  5. ^ NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROLIFERATION: Outspoken Opponents of Plutonium Demilitarization Delays and Missteps in Nuclear Demilitarization: Part 4. Alexander DeVolpi, physicist (retired, Argonne National Laboratory); formerly manager of nuclear diagnostics and technical manager of arms control and nonproliferation program; author of Proliferation, Plutonium and Policy.
  6. ^ a b J. Carson Mark (August 1990). "Reactor Grade Plutonium's Explosive Properties". Nuclear Control Institute. Retrieved May 10, 2010. 
  7. ^ International Panel on Fissile Materials, Global Fissile Material Report 2011: Nuclear Weapon and Fissile Material Stockpiles and Production (see Appendix 1), retrieved on October 1, 2012.
  8. ^ Richard Lawrence Garwin, Senior Fellow for Science and Technology Council on Foreign Relations, New York Draft of August 26, 1998
  9. ^ "Operation Hardtack, test shot Juniper, 0.2 kt is approximately the yield of a boosted primary that fails to boost.". 
  10. ^ "Nuclear Power in the World Today". Retrieved 2013-06-22. 
  11. ^ a b c
  12. ^
  13. ^ Electric Power Annual 2009 Table 5.2 April 2011
  14. ^ a b c "Additional Information Concerning Underground Nuclear Weapon Test of Reactor-Grade Plutonium". US Department of Energy. June 1994. Retrieved 2007-03-15. 
  15. ^ "DOE/NV209 REV 15 December 2000 United States Nuclear Tests July 1945 through September 1992". 
  17. ^ "Nuclear proliferation devices and weapons". 
  18. ^ Lian-Feng Zhao, Xiao-Bi Xie, Wei-Min Wang, and Zhen-Xing Yao, "Regional Seismic Characteristics of the 9 October 2006 North Korean Nuclear Test, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, December 2008 98:2571-2589; doi:10.1785/0120080128
  21. ^ "Forbes magazine. Fancy New Lids for Nuclear Waste Casks, As Contents Get Hotter. "Status of Nuclear Power: A Global View IAEA 2005.". 
  22. ^ a b "Status of Nuclear Power: A Global View Y. A. Sokolov Deputy Director General. IAEA". 
  23. ^ Categorization of Used Nuclear Fuel Inventory in Support of a Comprehensive National Nuclear Fuel Cycle Strategy. page 34 figure 20. Discharge isotopic composition of a WE 17×17 assembly with initial enrichment of 4.5 wt % that has accumulated 45 GWd/tU burnup/
  24. ^ Source: Plutonium Fuel - OECD Report, 1989
  25. ^ Categorization of Used Nuclear Fuel Inventory in Support of a Comprehensive National Nuclear Fuel Cycle Strategy. page 35 figure 21. Discharge isotopic composition of an assembly with initial U-235 enrichment of 4.5 wt % that has accumulated 45 GWd/tU burnup. Isotopic composition of used nuclear fuel as a function of burnup for a generic PWR fuel assembly
  26. ^ "Fancy New Lids for Nuclear Waste Casks, As Contents Get Hotter. "Status of Nuclear Power: A Global View IAEA 2005.". 
  27. ^ a b
  28. ^ See table B "MOX fuels".
  29. ^ Combating Nuclear Terrorism Lessons from Aum Shinrikyo, Al Quaeda, and the Kinshasa [research] Reactor.