Posted by
James Nichols on Friday, September 28, 2007 12:39:21 AM
Just a few undergraduate level NucE calculations:
9,000 kg of 3% enriched uranium running at a power level of 100MW will produce at the very best 10g of plutonium 239 per day. So in 100 days only 1 kg is produced (max run about 1000days). The largest power reactors we have are 3000 MW thermal, these are very large reactors. One may be able to work with a little less than the 9,000 kg I mentioned above but not much less. It is hard to believe that Iran can be only two years away from a bomb given the time it will take to enrich enough uranium, make the fuel elements, get the reactor operating, dissolve the fuel elements and extract and purify the plutonium. Unless another government is supplying the plutonium, 5 years seems like a more likely timetable.