Friday, May 06, 2022

Perhaps That 7th Entity Was An Enrichment Array?

Still looking into that mysterious seventh reactor now being mentioned at Zaporizhzhia. It's only a six-unit plant. See why the Russian seizure might be most inconvenient for certain entities?  Proper link for 'seventh' reactor at ZNPP. Maybe for cooking up some weapons magic dust, or maybe just a typo (because nuclear gulators never proofread public statements... heh).

"...The Russian Federation attacked the following nuclear installations and facilities in Ukraine: [list]

...the site of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant with seven nuclear facilities on-site (March 3, 2022)..."   "Perhaps that 7th entity is an enrichment array made to go beyond the 3% needed for reactor fuel and designed for enrichment to weapons grade."

Enriching uranium today is a mechanical process - no reactors involved. It's done almost exclusively in gas centrifuges.

Neutron bombs (low yield, little fallout, high 'people-killing' neutron flux) require a lot of tritium. Most boosted weapons use a little tritium, but China and Israel's neutron bombs require a lot. Tritium decays at over 5% a year, so you need to keep replenishing it whether it's just in storage for bombs or actually inside a warhead. You make tritium by irradiating lithium rods made for that purpose and inserting them (usually in place of regular fuel rods) in a nuclear reactor for the entire fuel cycle (12 - 18 months).

Russia can (or may have already) collected evidence if Zaporizhzhia reactors were used for that purpose. Chances are pretty good because so many were shut down ahead of schedule for mysterious reasons earlier this year. Reactors have to be reconfigured a bit for tritium production - they run under different parameters, produce less power and use less boron in the cooling water. I suppose it could be concealed with enough effort, but Rosatom built Ukraine's VVER1000 reactors and (until recently) has supplied all their fuel rods. They know exactly what to look for including, I suppose, an 'extra' reactor that could be used for that purpose.

Ukraine would have no reason to make substantial quantities of tritium for weapons, and certainly not in 'neutron bomb' quantities... unless THEY had developed neutron bombs, or were producing tritium for some unnamed third party to use in theirs. Did I mention that the Dimona reactor is end-of-life and can't be used for tritium production anymore?

I see the reactor operators have recently been crying about Rosatom nuclear engineers asking for 'sensitive' ZNPP operating data, which they refuse to give them. So something fishy going on for sure. Maybe Rosatom should send in a few Chechens to ask again - politely at first, then not so politely.

Ukraine would also need plutonium for weapons, but that comes from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. They did that in Ukraine in Soviet times but shouldn't have any reason to be doing that now. Pretty hard to hide any quantities of radioactive plutonium. You would need catacombs under a steel plant or something like that, but what do I know...

axios |   The Biden administration last week asked the Israeli government to consider increasing its military aid to Ukraine, U.S. and Israeli officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: Taking a careful approach to the war, Israel has so far refused Ukraine's requests for advanced weaponry, and only last month agreed to send thousands of helmets and bulletproof vests for medical teams and first responders. But as Israel takes a more critical public line against Russia, it's signaling it is increasingly open to supplying Ukraine with certain nonlethal military equipment.

Behind the scenes: Israel last week sent Dror Shalom, the head of the political-military bureau at the Ministry of Defense, to Ramstein Air Base in Germany for a U.S.-led meeting on sending weapons to Ukraine.

  • The Biden administration made it clear to the Israelis that the U.S. understands its complicated situation with Russia and appreciates what it has done so far in terms of aid to Ukraine, but hopes it could do more in providing military equipment, U.S. and Israeli officials said.
  • This message was delivered during a meeting between White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart, Eyal Hulata, at the White House last week and in conversations between the Pentagon and the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
  • The White House declined to comment.

State of play: A senior Israeli official said the Israeli government is considering increasing its military aid to Ukraine and is likely to do it as the war continues. But the official stressed Israel will only provide nonlethal military equipment.

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