The University of West Florida Nuclear Safeguards Paper Instructions: read and follow all instructions or your assignment may not be graded: Put your name

The University of West Florida Nuclear Safeguards Paper Instructions: read and follow all instructions or your assignment may not be graded:

Put your name and page number on each and every sheet

Use at least 1-inch margins all around.

type short answer questions, double spaced using minimum 12 pt font, Times Roman.

As appropriate or required by the problem, cite all sources using complete references.

As with any engineering solution, your handwritten solution must be legible, logical, and complete.

For solving problems, work your problems by hand showing all your work. Clearly identify the governing

equations, use and identify appropriate units for all quantities and variables, work the problem methodically

showing all work, and report intermediate values so that partial credit can be assigned.

As with any engineering solution, if you need to make an assumption, please do so by clearly stating that

assumption and providing appropriate justification for that assumption.

Scan your hand-written work to Adobe PDF or insert into MS Word document.

You may use spreadsheets or similar in addition to your analysis to present your results/solution (i.e.

table, or graphs). This would be useful especially for repetitive calculations. First, clearly document your

methodology in your hand-written solution so that the work in the spreadsheet can be understood correctly.

Include the printout or screen capture of these results in your report along with your hand-written solution.

Again, you may use spreadsheets or similar but your presented solution (paper/report) must stand alone

without reference to the actual electronic file (i.e. spreadsheet). If you do use a spreadsheet or similar, then

email that along with your report (solution) to document your effort but again your solution/report must

stand-alone without reference to this file.

Acceptable format is MSWord or Adobe PDF. Do not submit a bunch of separate scanned images.

The resulting submittal must be legible and handwriting must be of a size to be readable

Do not include questions or other commentary with your submission. These can be submitted in a follow

up email.

1. Compare the Pu vectors (isotopic composition) of weapons grade (WG) and reactor grade (RG)

plutonium. Calculate and compare the heat load (heat generated i.e. W/kg) for each composition.

2. Describe and compare generally the characteristics of production of each type (grade) of plutonium

(i.e. burnup/depletion or time in reactor under irradiation). How are these distinct depending on your

goal of producing power/electricity vs. producing Pu for weapons? Type double spaced your

response.

3. Choose an example case of proliferation or attempted proliferation (i.e. Pakistan, India, S. Africa,

etc.) and discuss the different aspects of the fuel cycle involved. Use materials from the class (i.e.

lecture on illicit trafficking and others), text, and your own research (i.e. the library electronic

resources) to obtain two additional references.

4. The MOX Fuel Fabrication Plant in Aiken, SC if completed will produce MOX fuel from 35 tonne of

weapons grade plutonium. Calculate the plutonium content of the MOX fuel assuming it is fabricated

along with natural uranium and is designed to replace or be equivalent to an ordinary UO2 fuel with

enrichment 4.9%. If all, 35 tonne of weapons grade plutonium is converted to MOX, how much fuel

could be produced?