NE 5599 Nonproliferation, Nuclear Weapons and Safeguards

Homework #2
Acting as the State Eric S. Krage
The state as an assumed dictatorship will attempt to divert material necessary to create a nuclear bomb.
The process will begin with the mining of the material and further enrichment for the candu reactors in
the possession of the state. The state will plan to extract extra uranium from other processes such as
extracting uranium from the fracking for oil and gas which already has its own process which can extract
material unregulated undeclared from the other materials a little at a time. Once a stockpile of this
material is built up a dummy fuel rod can be placed in the reactor and the fuel rod intended for the
reactor can be proliferated while on the tail end of the process the built up uranium can be substituted
in once the rods come out of the reactor. The reason for the long process is to be able to process the
material and do something unexpected. Shortfalls to this process are having the ability to process
enough of this material to make significant enough strides to make such a process feasible. Another
potential way to find the dummy rod in the reactor is to look at the power output of the reactor and
compare it to the power histories.

Under the regulatory framework of 153 section 36 to be exempt from safeguards plutonium with an
isotopic concentration of plutonium-238 exceeding 80% must be maintained. To divert nuclear material
from such a source would be difficult as normal separation process would take lots of time to get
enough to create a nuclear weapon. But in order to make this process feasible and cost effective the
material can be zone refined to create a non-homogeneous mixture of the material precipitating the
plutonium isotopes from opposite ends of the material. Once this process has been done it is as simple
as chopping off the appropriate end to instantly have enough material to create a nuclear weapon and
while still being within the regulatory framework.

Note: This assignment is somewhat confusing as to the end product.