The myth of an exploding excess nuclear material repository

Journal Article · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:426437

Myers, W L; Stratton, W R; Kimpland, R H; Sanchez, R G; Anderson, R E ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM (United States)

Formation of critical and possibly autocatalytic mixtures of weapons-grade plutonium, Nevada tuff, and water in an underground repository has been postulated by Bowman and Vernneri. The objective of this work is to examine the possibility that a nuclear explosion in the {open_quotes}range of kilotons{close_quotes} or {open_quotes}hundreds of tons TNT equivalent{close_quotes} could occur from the formation of a {open_quotes}worst-case{close_quotes} autocatalytic mixture of plutonium, Nevada tuff, and water. Once this is done, other realistic criticality safety issues dealing with the design of the repository can be the main focus of the work for criticality experts. This work does not examine the probability of formation of the critical mixtures of plutonium, Nevada tuff, and water in a repository setting. The authors accept, for the purpose of this work, the assumptions of formation given by Bowman and Venneri. They examine the dynamic behavior of these systems using what they consider to be very conservative assumptions with respect to the physical properties and dynamic characteristics of the plutonium, Nevada tuff, and water mixtures.

• OSTI ID: 426437
• Report Number(s): CONF-961103--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 75; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
42 ENGINEERING
CRITICALITY
EXPLOSIONS
NUCLEAR WEAPONS DISMANTLEMENT
PLUTONIUM
SAFETY ANALYSIS
TUFF
UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL
WATER