[ExI] Depleted Uranium (was: We Need a Movide People!! Dammit!)

[Keith Henson]

At 11:00 AM 5/7/2007 -0400, you wrote:
>"Keith Henson" <hkhenson at rogers.com>
>
> > But  depleted uranium that's used for things like bullets never went near
> > a reactor. It's "depleted" of the easy to fission isotope U235.
>
>It's true that depleted Uranium (U238) is depleted of easy to fission U235,
>but it's not true that it never comes near a reactor,

I was specific about bullets.

>nor is it innocuous
>stuff. If you want to manufacture Plutonium all you need to do is place
>depleted uranium near a reactor.

More like deep inside in the neutron flux.  I recently wrote about making 
super high grade Pu 239 by pumping a depleted uranium solution through a 
reactor core and sorting out the plutonium (chemically) before it picks up 
another neutron.  To my surprise no calls from 3 letter agencies.

>And also, about 70% of the energy in an H bomb does not come from U235 or
>Plutonium or even the fusion reaction, it comes from common cheap depleted
>Uranium (U238). The fusion reaction makes lots of very high speed neutrons
>and those high speed neutrons can split even hard to split depleted Uranium;
>and that releases one hell of a lot of energy.

I know some of the H bombs were made this way.  I am not sure any are still 
in active inventory because these monsters created an awful lot of 
fallout.  But you are spot on.  If you hit U 238 hard enough it fissions