The Atomic Puzzler!

Gamma has been reading a lot lately about plutonium disposition, breeder reactors, and MOX fuel. However, being a canine, much of it goes over his head. To help him brush up on his skills, Dr. Egghead administered to Gamma a lengthy exam. Gamma is stuck on the following questions. Can you help? (Hint: some of the answers are found throughout this issue of SDA.) 1. How is plutonium made? By sending an unmanned spacecraft to Pluto where it retrieves samples from the planet's surface and returns them to earth. By a magic dog that lives in Disney World. By heating water under high pressure, then cooling it very rapidly. By irradiating uranium-238. (Plutonium is also found naturally in trace quantities.) 2. Which one of the following countries draws the highest percentage of its energy supply from nuclear power? USA Germany France Russia 3. Characteristics of plutonium include: known carcinogen used to strengthen dental braces non-radioactive all of the above 4. True or False: Most of the plutonium generated in the United States is a result of military activities. 5. True or False: Plutonium first began to be used as a fuel source because it was thought that reliance on nuclear power would increase and that the scarcity of uranium would plutonium a cost effective fuel source. 6. True or False: Germany is the only country with operating nuclear power plants that has decided to phase out nuclear power. 7. Given that (i) the rate of increase of commercially separated plutonium = 10 metric tons per year, (ii) the rate of increase of separated military plutonium = 1.0 metric ton per year, (iii) as of December 1, 1999, the stock of commercially separated plutonium = 205 metric tons, and (iv) as of December 1, 1999, the stock of separated military plutonium = 250 metric tons, answer the following: Estimate, in metric tons, the stocks of both commercial and military separated plutonium on the following dates: December 1, 2000, December 1, 2001, and December 1, 2002. (Assume rates of increase remain constant.) At what date (month and year) will the weight of the stocks of commercially separated plutonium and separated military plutonium be equal? Assuming that it takes one metric ton of weapon-grade (military) plutonium to manufacture 200 nuclear weapons, use your answers from question 6a to calculate the number of nuclear weapons that could be manufactured with the entire stock of separated weapon-grade plutonium on December 1, 2000. Assuming that it takes 1.4 metric tons commercial-grade plutonium to manufacture 200 nuclear weapons, use your answers from question 6(a) to calculate the number of nuclear weapons that could be manufactured with the entire stock of separated commercial-grade plutonium on December 1, 2000. What is the total number of nuclear weapons that could be created out of the total separated plutonium stocks (combined military and commercial) on December 1, 2000? Answers will be posted after March 23, 2001