In 1961, the plant began to receive fuel rods, which were three-foot-long pins about the width of pencil lead, clad in zirconium and filled with enriched
Uranium 235. Each of the 103 stainless steel subassemblies that made up the reactor was packed with 140 fuel rods.
Both of these take advantage of the difference in mass between uranium 238 and
uranium 235, to separate the two isotopes.
Uranium 235 must be enriched close to 90 per cent for use in an atom bomb.
After initial tests, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board ( AERB) said the content of radioactive
Uranium 235 ( U235) is much lower in the recovered material than that found in nature.
They might get their wish, if they can keep the world thinking that they do not have enough
Uranium 235 to build a bomb.
While a crude, but effective nuclear bomb could be constructed in the United States, it's still likely that a terrorist group would have to smuggle
uranium 235 through the border, they said.
The two options of enriched
uranium 235 and plutonium 239 bred from uranium 238 were pursued.
Centrifuges are chambers in which the gas is spun at high speeds until it separates into two isotope forms: uranium 238 and
uranium 235, the former being useless since most power plants use
uranium 235 to produce energy.
This final sentence exposes the mistaken assumption made by Dr Smith that Uranium 238 and
Uranium 235 are 'only very feeble sources of radiation'.
Within a few days 30,000 more deaths would follow as a result of shock and the terrible injuries inflicted by the explosion triggered by slamming two pieces of the highly unstable
Uranium 235 together.
Depleted uranium--a by-product of
uranium 235, which is favoured as a coating on tank- and bunker-buster shells because of its extreme density--is supposedly safe to the touch.