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Depleted Uranium Weaponry

bobdroege7 said:
Yes it would be primary, with all the radioactive impurities removed except for some Tritium or the radioactive hydrogen isotope.
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What radioactive impurities? Primary water is pure water, the only real radioactive element, to any degree, has a half-life of 17 seconds. It is in a closed loop. I forget what isotope is it, since I haven't worked in a nuclear plant for many years now.

My opinion is that it was sort of a parlor trick where he did something that sounds dangerous but was really pretty safe.
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Of course it was, but reactor coolant water is safe, after a a few minutes.

If he had drank some unpurified reactor coolant straight from the cold leg then he would have had his radcon rangers following him for months collecting his outputs.
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And treat him for internal third-degree burns as well.
 
thaiboxerken said:
What radioactive impurities? Primary water is pure water, the only real radioactive element, to any degree, has a half-life of 17 seconds. It is in a closed loop. I forget what isotope is it, since I haven't worked in a nuclear plant for many years now.
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If it picks up any metal ions from the piping it flows through, it won't be "pure" water. The most abundant isotope of Copper, for example, can absorb a neutron to form an isotope with something like a 13-hour half life, and if it's getting piped through the reactor core, a lot of that copper is going to get activated. And if it's passing through pumps, it might might pick up suspended metal particles from mechanical wear and tear, too.
 
I don't recall the primary piping being made of uranium. The pumps are also of design so that they won't add impurities from mechanical wear. Sure, there will be some impurities from piping and pump metal, but it's not very much. Primary coolant is often sampled to keep track of such things. It's a very clean system.
 
thaiboxerken said:
I don't recall the primary piping being made of uranium.
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Who said anything about uranium in the piping? Expose most metal atoms to high neutron flux and they become radioactive - don't need uranium for that.

Sure, there will be some impurities from piping and pump metal, but it's not very much. Primary coolant is often sampled to keep track of such things. It's a very clean system.
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How much is not much? The comfort level threshold for drinking the stuff is going to be considerably lower than whatever the mechanical requirements are to prevent wear and tear, corrosion, etc.
 
Ziggurat said:
Who said anything about uranium in the piping?
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I meant to type "copper". Sorry 'bout that.

Expose most metal atoms to high neutron flux and they become radioactive - don't need uranium for that.
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You are correct in that assertion.

How much is not much? The comfort level threshold for drinking the stuff is going to be considerably lower than whatever the mechanical requirements are to prevent wear and tear, corrosion, etc.
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Rickover drank primary coolant water, it wasn't a trick.
 
thaiboxerken said:
Rickover drank primary coolant water, it wasn't a trick.
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I believe that. I just wouldn't do it myself without actually measuring the stuff first (and drinking it unfiltered doesn't mean he didn't measure it to make sure it hadn't picked up anything).
 
As long as a person doesn't breath in DU dust, he/she will be fine.

If it does get inside the person will be subjected to the combined effects of DU, emitter properties (radiation) and (Geno)toxic properties. Which some say is more that the sum.
 
Ziggurat said:
I believe that. I just wouldn't do it myself without actually measuring the stuff first (and drinking it unfiltered doesn't mean he didn't measure it to make sure it hadn't picked up anything).
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I'm certain he did make sure it was safe before drinking it. The point of the stunt was to demonstrate that the Navy nuclear power program is safe enough to drink primary coolant. It's a story we're all taught at NNPS.
 
thaiboxerken said:
What radioactive impurities? Primary water is pure water, the only real radioactive element, to any degree, has a half-life of 17 seconds. It is in a closed loop. I forget what isotope is it, since I haven't worked in a nuclear plant for many years now.
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So, you went to Nuke school, did you graduate?

Remember the Uranium that is everywhere?

It's an impurity in the zirconium alloy that the naval reactors clad the fuel with.

Thus, when the reactor operates, fission products are circulating in this pure primary coolant.

Bob Droege class of 7903, plankowner bluenose SSN 712, EWS EDPO
14 years commercial nuclear power plant maintenance
 
I didn't think that the primary coolant actually mixed with nuclear fuel. Maybe I don't remember enough from nuke school.
 
In the USA Navy. CGN 40- USS Mississippi. I was part of the decom crew as well.
 
I was helping (as an RCT) cut up the CGN-40 in drydock last year. It is still sitting in Puget waiting to be cut up into small pieces to cart away on railcars.

It looks like thaiboxerken was sitting in the back of the class when chem, RP and metals were being taught at NPS ..... just kidding. :) If I drank coolant, I would be more worried about the chemicals we added to raise the pH, and not about the Co-60 laden crud or the minute amount of fission products in the sample.

Ranb
USN retired, NPS class 8401, Tautog, Jacksonville, Bates, Cavalla, R-5, NRMD, EWS/EDPO, Golden Shellback and last but not least, 15 #$%&!!! years as an E-6 before limping out with a whimper at 20 years. :)
 
From the article above:
Susan and Lance Greninger called NASA because they had bought the box at an auction near the Kennedy Space Center. A Hazmat team from the fire department examined the metal and said it was a solid piece of depleted uranium about the size of a child's fist.

They closed the road in the front of the home for about five hours just to be safe.

The state Bureau of Radiation Control retrieved the cylinder. They said the piece is toxic, but does not pose a health hazard to the community. They did say that if the couple had walked around the house with the uranium in their pocket, they would get radiation sickness.
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Closing the road for 5 hours? That's radiophobia for you. And you would NOT get radiation sickness even if you had it in your pocket, that's either a misquote or incompetence from the Bureau. From here: http://www.hps.org/publicinformation/ate/q161.html - Contact dose (beta) with DU is about 200-230 mR/h. Any clothing like a pocket would protect, and the dose would not be deep. 4-7mR/h gamma would also be rapidly reduced with distance. Radiation sickness takes about 200R, so it would take 1000 hours of direct skin contact to cause a local radiation burn on the skin. Sunlight is much more effective...

// CyCrow
 
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