Iran launches uranium yellowcake production

[IranZamin]

Iran launches uranium yellowcake production

15:24 17/10/2011
MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti)

Iran has manufactured the first batch of uranium yellowcake, the raw material used for nuclear fuel production, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Monday.

He spoke at a ceremony to mark the shipment of the first batch to Isfahan's Uranium Conversion Facility, the Fars news agency reported.

Iran has so far produced about 35 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium, Salehi said.

He also said Tehran will inaugurate a new unit in the next three months to produce plate fuel for the country's nuclear research reactors that produce radioisotopes for medical uses.

"We will have the capability to produce plate fuel in the next year," Salehi said.

Iran launches uranium yellowcake production | World | RIA Novosti

 

[Chogy]

Iran has maintained forever that they want enriched uranium for power plants. But power plants use uranium enriched to 3 to 6 percent, not 20% So what is the goal? If it's nukes, just say so.

 

[Drawn_Sword_of_God]

even if its for nuke then its irans business and nones else.

 

[Chogy]

I never said it wasn't. Just stop pretending.

 

[Mosamania]

Iran has maintained forever that they want enriched uranium for power plants. But power plants use uranium enriched to 3 to 6 percent, not 20% So what is the goal? If it's nukes, just say so.

They want it in cancer radiotherapy. Even though the only plus side of having such a high percentage is increased half life for transporting to large distances. For instance we get our radio therapy medicine from France and so it needs to be more so it can travel all the way from France to the middle east but on France itself it is better not to give it a high radio dose because it will cause unnecessary radiation damage to the transporting crew (risk).

 

[silko]

Iran has maintained forever that they want enriched uranium for power plants. But power plants use uranium enriched to 3 to 6 percent, not 20% So what is the goal? If it's nukes, just say so.

i dont know that much about nuclear stuff, but i can remember my teacher last year saying you need something like 90% to make a nuclear bomb?

 

[Doctor09]

if Iran is trying to make a nuclear bomb then its their right to do so ..... if USA and Israel has nuclear bomb then why not Iran

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

Iran has maintained forever that they want enriched uranium for power plants. But power plants use uranium enriched to 3 to 6 percent, not 20% So what is the goal? If it's nukes, just say so.

goes without saying, sir......it's a clandestine program that has been going on for years

the more the world (especially the west) tries to corner Iran, the more defiant the Iranians will become. It doesnt help the ''Western'' cause when israel also has a nuclear program (the only one in that region) and receives generous arms support from its allies despite its own defiance of UN resolutions

 

[Abii]

i dont know that much about nuclear stuff, but i can remember my teacher last year saying you need something like 90% to make a nuclear bomb?

yeah but first you have to enrich it to 20.

 

[Vassnti]

They want it in cancer radiotherapy. Even though the only plus side of having such a high percentage is increased half life for transporting to large distances. For instance we get our radio therapy medicine from France and so it needs to be more so it can travel all the way from France to the middle east but on France itself it is better not to give it a high radio dose because it will cause unnecessary radiation damage to the transporting crew (risk).

Unsealed radiotherapy sources such as I131 and Radium223 have half lives measured in days so a flight from france to the middle east is going to be a fraction of a half life and not much of a problem. After all we can get what we need safely flown to little old NZ a lot further away with out a problem.
Same for technetium cows used for diagnostic nuclear medicine work. Yes it would be nice to have production on tap but hardly required. Only time there was a problem was when some one ran a jumbo over a shipment and fortunatly people driving aircraft over nuclear material is rare.

Thing i dont see in Iran is any sign of production of the facilities to refine the Mo99 from the U235 targets once they have been irradiated, its a two part process. Now if you just want U235 for a bomb then you dont need a factory to refine Mo99.
Seeing Iran spends approx one million a year on import of their Mo99/Tc99m cows it is going to take a heck of a long time for them to make back any savings from home production.

Geoffrey Forden • A Primer on Iran

http://www.iaea.org/About/Policy/GC/GC54/GC54InfDocuments/English/gc54inf-3-att7_en.pdf

 

[Chogy]

My only goal in these sorts of threads is the desire to have Iran say "Yes, we agree that our tap-dance story about nuclear medicine and power plants is simply a cover for a nuclear weapons program."

I'm not going to debate the rightness of such a program. That's a complex thing. Just stop telling the world "It's 100% guaranteed purely for peaceful civil use."

 

[gambit]

i dont know that much about nuclear stuff, but i can remember my teacher last year saying you need something like 90% to make a nuclear bomb?

yeah but first you have to enrich it to 20.

U238 does not go 'ka-boom'. But U235 does. It is the result of an 'uncontrolled' chain reaction. The starting problem is the concentration of U235 in the first place...

Uranium-235 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uranium-235 is an isotope of uranium making up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238 it is fissile, i.e., it can sustain fission chain reaction. It is the only fissile isotope that is a primordial nuclide or found in significant quantity in nature.

Basically, if you take any amount/chunk of raw uranium, only 0.72% of that chunk will contain U235 and that is too low a concentration to initiate and sustain a chain reaction. Once the chain reaction start, it depends on the goal: If it is for electricity then we want to control said chain reaction. If it is for a nuclear bomb, then we do not want to control said chain reaction.

For electricity, a concentration of merely 5% of U235 is enough to initiate a chain reaction and to maintain control.

USEC Inc. - Uranium Enrichment

...a commercial nuclear reactor at an electric utility generally need uranium with a 4% - 5% concentration of U235.

But once the higher the concentration is above 5% people starts to get nervous because above 5% the possibility of initiating a chain reaction and let it go is the start of a nuclear weapons program. Theoretically, at 20% concentration of U235, a drop from a household ladder height can be enough to produce an explosion, but not like the kind that will destroy a city or even a city block. The higher the concentration of U235, the smaller the uranium mass is needed for that uncontrolled chain reaction. The operative words here are 'controlled' and 'uncontrolled'. Can a 90% concentration of U235 be used purely for electricity? Yes, and that is what nuclear powered ships has. Effectively, each reactor on a nuclear powered submarine or aircraft carrier is a potential nuclear bomb. But the reason why ships NEED such a high concentration is because volume space on a ship is limited and a premium. Land based reactors do not have that restriction.

This is why no one buys the Iranian argument that the Iranian nuclear program is not for weapons development. Iran is an oil producer lacking only refinery capability. There are plenty of land space available for plenty of 5-10% U235 enriched reactors for electricity generation.