~l.
Plutonium Vet:
and Public
Plutonium occurs
ttealth
in nature,
although in such small
wl Ounts that it Coes not constiltete a practical source ci the
element’.
Plutonium is bred in nuclear reactors by the
capture of neutrons in uranium-238.
To date,
the nuclear
weapons program has been the principal source of plutonium.
However, it is anticipated that the commercial nuclear power
industry will become the principal source of this material
within the next two decades.
In today's commercial reactors
plutonium is produced as a by-product in the production of
electricity.
As a result of the growth of the nuclear power industry,
--€& AEC estimates that the ectal cumulative orceducticn of
clutonium in the commercial sector of the United States will
be some 4.5 million kilograms by the year 20007.
piutonium,
like uranium,
can
serve
as
a
reactor
Since
fZuel,
both
are vécovered from spent reactor fuel in anticipation that
Fr
“ney will be recycled.
2/
The reactor together with the variety
The ratio of the concentrations of plutonium-239
uranium in ores varies from 4xl0713 to 1.5xlo-ll.
to
Katz, J.J.,
Chapter VI, The Chemistry of Actinide Elements, Methuen and
Co., Ltd., London,
1957,
pp.
239-330.
3/
Environmental Statement, Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor
Demonstration Plant, USAEC, WASH-1509, April 1972, p. 149.
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