Word: plutonium
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...though little noticed, France has developed a solid and tidy atomic capability. The fissionable substance in the French bomb was plutonium. The French have been producing plutonium since 1948, now get their supply from three reactors located at Marcoule, near Avignon in southern France. Together the three turn out about 100 kilograms of plutonium a year. In anyone's nuclear language, this is a respectable amount of plutonium, and with it France can turn out an estimated twelve atomic bombs a year, in the 20-200 kiloton range. By the end of 1961, when two reactors now under construction...
...efficiency of the device the French set off in the Sahara is shrouded in secrecy, but some top atomic experts estimate that it was roughly as efficient as the early U.S. bombs, i.e., it achieved fission of 2% of the plutonium it contained. (Current rate of fission in the U.S. bombs is estimated at 10%.) Says one Western European nuclear physicist well acquainted with the French atomic program: "They are ten years behind the Americans, seven years behind the British...
...expects France to have much difficulty in progressing into the more advanced arts of nuclear devices. Asked how long it would take the French to convert the Sahara test device into a compact bomb, one U.S. expert said: "They'll do it within months." With plutonium and heavy water already in hand, the French are expected to be able to produce an H-bomb in much less time than it took the U.S. and Russia, both of whom had to spend many months and even years in theoretical studies to determine whether a hydrogen explosion was even feasible...
...small amount of solvent exploded and blew open the door of a processing cell at the AEC's Oak Ridge laboratory. About one-fiftieth of an ounce of plutonium was scattered into the air. Last week the AEC reported on what it took to tidy up this minor atomic mishap...
...those who were within a four-acre area around the explosion turned in their laboratory-issued clothes to be decontaminated. Their urine was checked to ensure that they had not inhaled or ingested any plutonium. The processing plant and a nearby research reactor were shut down. The buildings were washed with detergents. The buildings' roofs were resurfaced. The surrounding lawn was dug up, and the sod carted to a deep burial place. The surface was chiseled off of a hundred yards of asphalt road. To anchor any speck of plutonium that might have survived, the buildings were completely repainted...