A good number of universities all have small research reactors, its hardly that big of deal. Its just a case of the media trying to generate interest in a silly story based upon the public's lack of knowledge.
Most cities have 1 if not more cyclotrons used to supply nuclear pharmacies that work with far more radioactive isotopes than what these small scale little reactors produce.
Its simply an issue of people reading "nuclear reactor" having an uninformed kneejerk reaction of Chernobyl or Three Mile Island and freaking out thinking Kodak could of irradiated the East Coast when in reality these little things are safer than some older X-Ray machines
millsart wrote:
A good number of universities all have small research reactors, its hardly that big of deal. Its just a case of the media trying to generate interest in a silly story based upon the public's lack of knowledge.
Most cities have 1 if not more cyclotrons used to supply nuclear pharmacies that work with far more radioactive isotopes than what these small scale little reactors produce.
Its simply an issue of people reading "nuclear reactor" having an uninformed kneejerk reaction of Chernobyl or Three Mile Island and freaking out thinking Kodak could of irradiated the East Coast when in reality these little things are safer than some older X-Ray machines...Show more →
Yakim Peled wrote:
But do they also have enriched Uranium?
Happy shooting,
Yakim.
There is a HUGE difference between enriched Uranium and what is considered "weapon's grade". A typical reactor may use a U235 that is about 4-5% while a bomb needs to be around 90% enriched.
You also need a rather large amount of it, probably 30+ lbs which is VERY hard to produce. Look at the size of the banks of thousands of centrifuges that need to run 24/7 for several years to achieve those levels. Iran certainly hasn't mastered it yet.
There simply wasn't any real public danger (aside from paranoia) from Kodak having a small research reactor
millsart wrote:
There is a HUGE difference between enriched Uranium and what is considered "weapon's grade". A typical reactor may use a U235 that is about 4-5% while a bomb needs to be around 90% enriched.
You also need a rather large amount of it, probably 30+ lbs which is VERY hard to produce. Look at the size of the banks of thousands of centrifuges that need to run 24/7 for several years to achieve those levels. Iran certainly hasn't mastered it yet.
There simply wasn't any real public danger (aside from paranoia) from Kodak having a small research reactor
The amounts were small but the enrichment percentage is still a mystery. Anyway, I agree that it's likely that no real danger was ever present. But I still think it's super cool that a film company (at that time) would hold any nuclear device.
millsart wrote:
There is a HUGE difference between enriched Uranium and what is considered "weapon's grade". A typical reactor may use a U235 that is about 4-5% while a bomb needs to be around 90% enriched.
I believe that in the 1950s Kodak made an Arial Commercial Ektar lens that had uranium in the glass. The glass turns yellow with age, and will set off a Geiger counter. Not sure how dangerous it is. Around 1900 or so, there was a b&w film developing process that involved uranium that was very dangerous. I think it ended up killing several prominent photographers around then, possibly including Fayette J. Clute, editor of Camera Craft magazine.
I think you need something like 30 kilograms to have enough for a bomb. I went to school to be a nuclear medicine tech and we had number of classes in particle physics, radiation safety etc, but they really didn't seem to have any electives offering courses in bomb making lol.
Bigger question I guess is if Kodak or Iran has so far enriched more u235 to date. Oakridge had every resource the US could pour into it and thousands of centerfuges and still took them several years to enrich enough for a bomb.
I read somewhere that about 15kg of 235 is needed for a bomb, but only a few grams actually undergo fission, the rest is needed for some other reason, which is beyond me
It's still an interesting story, it seems like quite a few people were left in the dark about its existence until after it was decommissioned. Probably for the best for a multitude of reasons. From the article I gather than no modern-day research reactors use enriched uranium.
