Proliferation-proof uranium/plutonium fuel cycles : Safeguards and non-proliferation

After description of the uranium / plutonium fuel cycle results are reported for various isotopic compositions of reactor-grade plutonium for usability in hypothetical nuclear explosive devices. It is shown that it is mainly thermal analyses, besides neutron physics analyses, which indicate the limits of concentration of the Pu-238 plutonium isotope. Above these limits, such hypothetical nuclear explosive devices are not feasible technically. In the light of this finding, future proliferation-proof fuel cycles are proposed which make use of rec ...