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Uranium ore questions

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Nick Sumner	Uranium ore questions	Lead	[-]
Posts: 899 (05/16/08 17:26:50) Old Friend Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Would the allies have been able to refine enough uranium for the WW2 A bomb programme if they hadn't had access to the Belgian ore deposits? Would North American deposits alone have yeilded enough uranium for the three bombs of 1945? When were the Australian and South African deposits discovered? How many tons of ore does it take to make a ton of (1945) weapons grade material? If that isn't a question in finger breaking territory! Thanks in advance!
NewGolconda		#1	[-]
Posts: 1302 (05/16/08 19:40:00) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	"Would the allies have been able to refine enough uranium for the WW2 A bomb programme if they hadn't had access to the Belgian ore deposits?" What normally happens when you rule out the easiest option is that the next easiest takes longer, costs more and slows you down. Do some digging, and some quick maths with tones and grade. "When were the Australian and South African deposits discovered?" A bit late, in the case of Rum Jungle. A bit early in this case. http://www.sea-us.org.au/oldmines/radiumhill.html http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2005/20050822_nuclear/nuclear-chronology.htm "How many tons of ore does it take to make a ton of (1945) weapons grade material? If that isn't a question in finger breaking territory!" The easiest of all. Work out the degree of enrichment required, then use the grade of the ore. You need to factor in some efficiencies here, for metalurgical recovery and for the efficiency of your enrichment process. My memory is fuzzy on esoteric isotopic variations from ore to ore... Last Edited By: NewGolconda 05/17/08 00:47:48. Edited 1 times.
gifted one22		#2	[-]
Posts: 74 (05/16/08 22:45:45) Regular Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Most natural uranium is less than one percent 235, IIRC, and you need something like 95% or more for weapons. I don't know how pure the ore is. Evil is Evil, no matter how small.
pdf27		#3	[-]
Posts: 1105 (05/17/08 02:56:25) SIFOWite Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	NewGolconda wrote: The easiest of all. Work out the degree of enrichment required, then use the grade of the ore. You need to factor in some efficiencies here, for metalurgical recovery and for the efficiency of your enrichment process. My memory is fuzzy on esoteric isotopic variations from ore to ore... Errr... not quite that easy, given that depleted Uranium still has a notable fraction of U-235 in it (just less than natural Uranium) since no seperation method is capable of extracting all of the U-235. Assume that you're going to extract something like ~0.3% of the natural uranium metal you get out of the ore as weapons grade Uranium. Making some fairly wild assumptions about how pure the Canadian ore known about in 1942 or so was, you're looking at about a thousand tonnes of ore per tonne of weapons grade material - and a tonne will build you an awful lot of bombs. Do you know they have eating dogs for the anorexic now? - Phil the Greek
NewGolconda		#4	[-]
Posts: 1303 (05/17/08 04:30:29) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	"Errr... not quite that easy, given that depleted Uranium still has a notable fraction of U-235 in it (just less than natural Uranium) since no seperation method is capable of extracting all of the U-235." Sorta what I meant with "the efficiency of your enrichment process". You could also consider mining recovery as well as metalurgical recovery, and the effect of dilution on grade, but the difference is probably not significant for a hobby scale review. But it is still one of the easiest questions to answer on this list, even if you are forced to make some assumptions for a number of recoveries. For resource estimation we use figures like 10% for the accuracy of a bankable feasibility study and 25% (or worse) for a pre feasibility study. Below that level of confidence we have something we call a "order of magnitude study". Which might help turn any figure into a possible range of values. Note, I have only drilled into Uranium deposits twice, and that was while looking for something else. I have sat through quite a few presentations and read some reports. Last Edited By: NewGolconda 05/17/08 05:00:50. Edited 2 times.
WarshipAdmin		#5	[-]
Posts: 3385 (05/17/08 16:32:59) Greg Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I think between you you have answered this question, but roughly what %age of uranium ore is uranium - is that pdf27's 0.1% figure? Then what %age of U is is U235? does that vary much? I'd have thought that except in the natural reactors all the U was 'created' at the same time (4007 BC) and would therefore have the same isotope makeup.
NewGolconda		#6	[-]
Posts: 1305 (05/17/08 17:19:49) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Grade is king, and there are low grade and high grade deposits. Most ore grades for uranium deposits are expressed as a percent U3O8. Most sources seem to agree 0.7% U235, with depleted uranium in the 0.2-0.3% band. How much worse were the early gasseous diffusion results?
WarshipAdmin		#7	[-]
Posts: 3386 (05/18/08 01:00:02) Greg Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Yes I looked it up in CRC. As I guessed, %age U235/U238 doesn't vary much, say 0.7% plus or minus 0.1%. SO we have two steps, find high grade ore, then refine it . As it turns out uranium is ubiquitous, roughly as common as silver. High grade deposits can be as much as 50% U3O8 http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf26.html for lower grade deposits. Don't fancy 0.02% much! Last Edited By: WarshipAdmin 05/18/08 15:58:06. Edited 1 times.
Nick Sumner		#8	[-]
Posts: 900 (05/18/08 15:44:29) Old Friend Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Thanks for your responses every one, I've been looking through 'Dark Sun' by Richard Rhodes which states that there were very large known uranium deposits in Canada during the time of the Manhattan project. The need to corner the market for the Belgian ore was more from the necessity of keeping it out of the wrong hands than a need to get hold of it for Allied atom bomb production.

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