New investigations of the criticality property of pure 232U

Gamma-spectrometric determination of 232 U in uranium-bearing materials

“…The artificial nuclide 232 U can form in a variety of nuclear reaction chains. The most important were given, for example, in [6], [12], [13], [14] and [15]. These reactions occur, e.g., during the irradiation of uranium or thorium fuel in a nuclear reactor.…”

New Sustainable Secure Nuclear Industry Based on Thorium Molten-Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetics (THORIMS-NES)

“…The reason for this fact is that 233 U fuel is accompanied by very strong gamma activity requiring sophisticated remote handling or a liquid-fuel technology for easy handling. The gamma activity is due to production of the 232 U isotope which takes place in a thorium-fueled system by the following five reactions [ORNL-5132, 1976;Ganesan, et al, 2002].…”

“…In other words, the production of 232 U would be higher in a fast reactor in comparison to the production in a thermal reactor. Other possibilities exist as discussed by Ganesan, et al, 2002. The strong gamma activities associated with 232 U are such that detection of any diverted 233 U is easy providing increased security and non-proliferation. [Moniz and Neff, 1978;Ganesan, et al, 2002].…”

“…Other possibilities exist as discussed by Ganesan, et al, 2002. The strong gamma activities associated with 232 U are such that detection of any diverted 233 U is easy providing increased security and non-proliferation. [Moniz and Neff, 1978;Ganesan, et al, 2002]. Transport of significant amounts of 233 U with more than 10 ppm level of 232 U require remote handling operations and constitutes a high radiological hazard that requires lead or concrete shielding.…”

Isotopic Uranium and Plutonium Denaturing as an Effective Method for Nuclear Fuel Proliferation Protection in Open and Closed Fuel Cycles

“…So, some additional actions should be undertaken to protect LEU against its unauthorized re-enrichment. The effects of 232 U introduction into LEU are caused by the following specific properties of 232 U (see Table 2):  Good neutron-multiplying properties of 232 U (Ganesan et al, 2002) and its neutron predecessor 231 P a m a k e i t p o s s i b l e t o e x t e n d t i m e p e r i o d o f c o n t i n u o u s r e a c t o r operation without refueling up to the values comparable with the reactor life-time. As a result, unauthorized extraction of plutonium from spent fuel assemblies becomes unfeasible.…”