Re: O.T. - Saddam's yellowcake

On Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:15:42 -0700, Tim May <timcmay@xxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <20080707150229.-605@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Sparky <nomail@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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"The Rifleman" wrote:



As the original artricle states, Iraq produced no more after the plant was
bombed in 1991 and at that same time the yellow cake was secured, that
blows

They were suppose to have disposed of it, were they not?


First, "yellowcake" is just uranium ore, lightly processed in some
cases. It takes a serious enrichment program--centrifuges or gaseious
diffusion plants, a la Oak Ridge, TN or Hanford, WA--to create even
crudely useful "weapons grade uranium" (that is, U-235, separated from
the U-238 which makes up the vast percentage of uranium in ore).

Second, one does not "dispose of" the stockpiles of ore which were once
intended for use in their nuclear reactors.

Third, anyone who thinks 500 tons of uranium ore is a "weapon of mass
destruction" does not know his science, at even a basic level.

--Tim May

500 tons of Yellowcake yields 80 percent or 400 tons of uranium.

This 400 tons of uranium can then be converted to uranium hexaflouride
gas.

400 tons of uranium hexaflouride yields approximately 2.88 tons of
U235 (at a ratio of .72 percent of U235 to U238 in its natural state).

I realize that to complete the above 3 steps would probably require
greater than the GNP of most small countries, but 2.88 tons is a lot
of U235.

I read a book called "The Curve of Binding Energy" some years ago (by
John McPhee). Iin it he talked about in laymens terms the processes
of converting natural uranium to a fissionable weapons grade. McPhee
spent some time with and interviewed Ted Taylor, one of the guys who
worked at Los Alamos and did weapons development. I am fairly certain
that there was made mention of a process whereby yellowcake (enriched,
of course) could be used to fashion an implosion device.

Ironically, this book starts off with McPhee talking with Taylor about
how small a weapon would be needed by terrorists to take down the twin
towers of World Trade Center.

It's an interesting book on how the bad guys might go about diverting
enough U235 or Pu239 to build a bomb. Of course, this book was
written a while ago - well before the capabilities of countries like
Iran to use centrifuge technology to do the enrichment. It's a
worthwhile and interesting read, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowcake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-235
.

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