inriched uranium

[lesat]

how did the americans aquire inriched uranium for the ww2 atom bomb without nuclear power stations

[kazza12345]

nucleatr power station are only run by nuclear power, they dont produce Enriched uranium - they produce electricity ...

[lesat]

so how do u enrich uranium?

[maxximus]

http://www.uic.com.au/nip29.htm one of the bombs was built outside of a town in oregon called la grande not sure which one, but it is on, or near native indian land and to this day the whole area is contaminated and there is still a continuing battle with the goverment to clean it up, as it is still highly radioactive and the site has long been abandoned.

[maxximus]

that's a gooder!!

[shammydodger]

I think the CIA might be monitoring this site as we "speak."

[brachiopod]

The Iranians I know can at least spell "enrich".

[buildersmate]

You don't enrich Uranium by putting it in a power station. Both nuclear power stations and atomic bombs require enriched uranium as a fuel source. Naturally mined uranium contains only a small percentage (<1%) of the U-235 isotope that is required for this form of nuclear fission - the other isotope is the slightly heavier U-238 isotope. It is enriched by either diffusion or centrifuge techniques, the latter relying on spinning the material at very high speed to separate the 2 isotopes.

[lesat]

ok I see what you are saying so why are the usa so concerend that iran is bulding a nuclear power station.

They say it because they will use it to produce enriched uranium.

[buildersmate]

Iran have been buying up hundreds of centrifuges for enriching uranium. They say they want enriched uranium for peaceful purposes, to make electricity using a nuclear power source. Why they want to do this when they have one of the largest natural sources of proven oil reserves in the ground is your guess.

[jake-the-peg]

Lets see if I can pull some of this together for you.

There are two principal materials used for nuclear bombs Highly enriched Uranium and Plutonium.

The first American bomb at the Trinity test site was Uranium as was Hiroshima. The Nagasaki Bomb was Plutonium.

You don't need a nuclear powerstation to enrich Uranium but you do to make Plutonium.

Nuclear powerstations generally run on uranium enriched to a lower level than you use for a bomb but some older ones use raw, un enriched Uranium. The spent Fuel rods removed from a nuclear reactor contain all sorts of nasty materials amoungst them Plutonium. Plutonium is extracted from such spent fuel rods at Sellafield.

Plutonium is more difficult to make a bomb from but it's a lot easier to manufacture than enriched uranium. To enrich the Uranium it has to be made into a gas Uranium hexafloride and the Uranium 235 which is lighter split off from the non radioactive Uranium 238 (this is depleted Uranium you may have heard of being used in artiullary shells). In WWII this can be done with huge centrifuges, or various diffusion processes. In any case its dangerous and difficult.

The Americans did construct nuclear reactors to create the required plutonium during the war this was done at Oak Ridge and Hanford http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/come_thr ough.htm

I think it's pretty clear rthat the main reason for Iran's nuclear program is to keep George Bush out of their country

[buildersmate]

Very comprehensive, Jake. Gets 3 stars from me. Hanford is the place on the Oregon border that Maxximus refers to (above). Soil there is contaminated far more extensively than Dounreay. UK weren't the only ones making mistakes with keeping the pollutants contained.

[lesat]

thanx jake u have put some light on the subject for me

so the power stations will produce plutonium as a by product

[buildersmate]

Yes, and that was exactly the purpose of Windscale (renamed Sellafield after the fire, in the hope people would forget the association?). Take the used fuel rods back from the numerous power stations and separate out the different isotopes - including the Plutonium. Use the Plutonium for - guess what. Makes one independent of the need to source yellowcake (naturally-occurring Uranium bearing rocks) to make the beastly devices.

[lesat]

why did my other question on uranium get banned