Re: [Phys-l] Isotope shortage. Was: Re: Fwd: NSF NanoTeach Pilot Test - Jan 8 Deadline

[Hugh Haskell <haskellh@verizon.net>]

At 09:58 -0400 09/28/2009, Embarq Customer wrote:
> Aren't all the breeder reactors in Europe and elsewhere producing a 
> gracious plenty of 238P ? ?
I don't believe that any of the European reactors (save maybe one or 
two in Russia) are operating in the breeder mode. But in any event, 
breeder reactors produce mostly Pu-239. Pu-238 is produced by a 
different method--one where Pu-239 is not a by-product (or at lest a 
significant one), since is is even harder to separate Pu-238 from 
Pu-239 than it is U-235 from U-238.

Pu-238 is not fissile, and thus produces the heat needed to generate 
the electricity in spacecraft (and, incidentally, undersea 
communications cable amplifiers) from alpha-emission. It's activity 
rate is much higher than Pu-239 since its half-life in only about 80 
years, rather than Pu-239's
24,000 years.

Hugh
--
Hugh Haskell
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mailto:haskellh@verizon.net

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