From: Bill Frantz <frantz@netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 1997 00:45:33 +0800
To: "Peter Trei" <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: russia_1.html
In-Reply-To: <199710061350.GAA06107@toad.com>
Message-ID: <v0300784fb05ec3dd3fb9@[207.94.249.144]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 3:01 AM -0700 10/6/97, Peter Trei wrote:
>The plutonium cores of thermonuclear devices have a limited shelf
>life - he claimed 6 years, which jibes with what I've heard from
>other open sources. Fission products build up in the cores which
>can poison a chain reaction. Thus all Pu based devices need to have
>the cores periodically removed and replaced with new ones, while the
>old ones have to go through a non-trivial reprocessing stage to
>remove the fission products.

I think this comment is in error.  Plutonium has a half life on the order
of 250,000 years, so very little decay products would build up in 6 years.
The tritium used in thermonuclear weapons has a much shorter half life, and
would need to be replaced about that often.


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