Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Is there any reason why large cargo ships could not be nuclear powered? Most goods are shipped around the world in extremely large container ships these days.
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The spent fuel of an old nuclear powered vessel, because of its very high specific radioactivity could easily poison and entire city, can you imagine a terrorist organization driving a nuc tanker or freighter into a harbor and blowing it up?
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Fuel from a nuclear reactor cannot be used to create nuclear weapons. This is a popular misconception. Nuclear fuel is only mildly enriched; weapons-grade material requires a very high level of enrichment.
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By the nature of light water reactors, some amount of PU239 is produced, albeit not very efficiently. Plutonium being chemically different than uranium, the separation process is much easier, and weapons grade plutonium can be produced from spent fuel much more easily than weapons grade uranium.