NEI Nuclear Notes

Earlier today, the CNN network crawler put out incorrect information about Iran’s uranium enrichment. The crawler stated that 3.67% is "roughly halfway to weapons grade." That is off by several magnitudes. The cited figure is actually well within the range of reactor grade, magnitudes away from weapons grade. Weapons grade uranium is enriched to at least 85%-90% U235, the fissile element. Quoting the Smithsonian, "U-235, however, is fissile; it can start a nuclear reaction and sustain it. The 0.7% in naturally occurring uranium is not enough to make a bomb or even a nuclear reactor for a power plant. A power plant requires uranium with 3-4% U-235 (this is known as low-enriched or reactor-grade uranium). Most importantly, a nuclear bomb needs uranium with a whopping 90% U-235 (highly enriched uranium)." Here are our tweets reacting to this major error: COMING UP: Our response to @CNN ’s botched reporting on uranium enrichment. — Nuclear Energy Inst. (@NEI)...