Such a configuration tends to be the simplest core design, but processing out
fission products is quite difficult because thorium is chemically almost identical to the rare earth
fission products.
plutonium, 4%
fission products, and the remainder U-238.
2] grain boundary oxidation, on the effect of
fission products on fuel oxidation, on the segregation of rare-earth elements in U[O.
Considering only such
fission products as radioactive carbon, strontium and cesium, he calculated that genetic damage, plus the immediate and delayed damage to immune systems, would accelerate the deaths of between 500,000 and 1 million people worldwide for every fifty megatons of nuclear explosive power.
It was at the hearing in Angarsk that the AECC's Site 310 was revealed to have in storage radioactive waste containing uranium, transuranic elements, uranium
fission products representing process waste from manufacturing uranium fluoride compounds, contaminated equipment, and spent sources of ionizing radiation.
During nuclear fission, plutonium and uranium generate many lighter
fission products, such as xenon isotopes.
The first is a porous carbon buffer layer that can accumulate gaseous
fission products and accommodate core deformation, which might occur during the nuclear fuel lifetime.
Operating nuclear reactors contain large amounts of radioactive
fission products which, if dispersed, could contaminate soil and vegetation, and be ingested by humans and animals.
Aerosols that form when
fission products vaporize will, as they decay, deposit heat onto whatever they've become attached to.
During the reprocessing of spent fuel for recovering of valuable elements, the very small quantity of radioactive
fission products (waste) is isolated.
These products are indeed highly active immediately after this reaction, but the elements produced are no longer uranium, and though these
fission products have a wide range of radioactive half lives these are all shorter than that of natural uranium.
If these elements were fissioned, the mountain could take
fission products from five times as much spent fuel before the temperature became a problem.
