Re: pinhole lead and plutonium

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From: NFetter@aol.com
Date: Sun Sep 29 2002 - 23:54:18 PDT 

From: NFetter@aol.com
Message-ID: <134.1525392b.2ac94f1a@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 02:54:18 EDT
Subject: Re: pinhole lead and plutonium

Hi Yibi,
Lead is a good radiation shield because it is dense. Platinum would work even
better, but it is rather pricey. Platinum has a density of 21.5 g./ml and
lead is about half this number at 11.2.
Plutonium is relatively easy to make in large amounts in a nuclear reactor,
but U235 must be painstakingly separated from U238. The amount of uranium
that can be extracted from the Earth is limited, so the amount of U235 is
also limited. The estimate I have seen for the worldwide amount of plutonim
is around 300 metric tons!
Neil Fetter

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