U.S. Department of Energy - OSTI
U.S. Department of Energy - OSTI
U.S. Department of Energy - OSTI
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Deuterium and Heavy Water Production<br />
All information concerning the technologies for producing<br />
deuterium or heavy water has been declassified and won’t be<br />
discussed here. However, you should refer any document that<br />
discusses deuterium or heavy water (D 2 O) in the context <strong>of</strong><br />
nuclear weapons, shipments, or inventory quantities.<br />
Production Reactors<br />
The United States used production reactors at Hanford, Washington, and Savannah River,<br />
South Carolina, to produce nuclear materials that do not exist in nature. Like a commercial<br />
power reactor, a continuous fission chain reaction <strong>of</strong> uranium-235 nuclei occurs within the<br />
reactor core <strong>of</strong> a production reactor. However, while a commercial power reactor uses the<br />
energy released during fission to produce electricity, a production reactor uses neutrons<br />
produced during the fission to make nuclear materials. This is done by bombarding a target<br />
material with the neutrons and transmuting it to a slightly heavier element. The newly formed<br />
man-made element must then be chemically separated from the target material. Some materials<br />
produced and chemical processes used by DOE are shown below:<br />
Material<br />
Produced<br />
Target<br />
Material<br />
Chemical Separation<br />
Processes<br />
Plutonium-239 Uranium-238 PUREX (Plutonium-Uranium<br />
Extraction)<br />
BUTEX (Dibutoxy Diethyl<br />
Ether Extraction) (Late 1940s)<br />
Tritium Lithium-6 Palladium Diffusion<br />
Polonium-210 Bismuth-209 Solvent Extraction<br />
Uranium-233 Thorium-232 THOREX (Thorium<br />
Extraction)<br />
Plutonium-238 Neptunium-237 Solvent Extraction<br />
Denying a proliferator information on how to efficiently produce such materials would hinder his<br />
or her efforts. Information that remains sensitive includes:<br />
• Target and fuel technology,<br />
• Details <strong>of</strong> the chemical separation processes,<br />
• Allocations to the weapon and other classified programs, and<br />
• Sequence <strong>of</strong> operations (e.g., times, temperatures, and pressures).<br />
Subject Area Indicators and Key Word List 10