CFC a byproduct in uranium enrichment process?
We were on debate tournament this saturday debating on the motion “Renewable sources of energy are a better choice than nuclear energy in fight against climate change”. When we were the opposition, the other team claimed that CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) gases are a byproduct in uranium enrichment process.
Now as far as my knowledge of chemistry goes, I believe chlorine, fluorine and carbon have nothing to do with uranium, yet we’re talking not about chemical reactions, where, broadly speaking, only relations (bonds) between elements are changed, but about a change in a nuclear state of a particular element.
And whenever there’s a change in the nuclear state of a element, it can itself transform into another element, something that occurs in nuclear reactions with fission. Does that happen during the enrichment process too?
Only that way it would make sense that CFC emerged from this process. But it’s still slippery slope to me.
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I can’t give you a direct quote about chlorine, fluorine and carbon, as I haven’t taken this stuff in about 3 years. BUT, Nuclear plants aren’t really 100% clean. They are better obviously than coal or gas plants, but they still produce nuclear waste among other byproducts (which could well include those gasses, and I believe it’s chlorocarbon and fluorocarbon, not all three separate).
During enrichment yes, fission takes place. That’s how they get the uranium up to the required standard. What makes the energy is decay, the opposite of fission.
(You could probably find this info, at least far better than I remember it, from any entry level college chem book….. I sold mine long ago or I’d look it up for ya).
The facilities’ biggest waste problem is TCE (trichloroethylene).
yeah, TCE is the issue, not CFC. I thought CFC was primarilly used as a compressed gas that provided pressure for applications such as a spray can. I worked with Naval Nuclear plants for 4 years and what I didn’t learn a lot about the enrichment process but if the fuel is allowed to start fission, that’s a bad thing cause it’s using up your fuel before it’s even inside the reactor.
There are some dangerous chemicals used to keep the pipes from rusting, but it only matters if a worker spills them. The only waste that really matters or is any real danger would be the filter. It’s kinda small though, and if safely changed out it can be properly disposed of. A correctly ran facility will not damage the wildlife around it whatsoever. To prove this there is a nuclear plant right in the middle of a town that has no idea it is there. It’s out in the woods and no one has a clue because it doesn’t poison the land or any of that rubbish.
proximo is right, nothing directly involved in the nuclear process is poison or polluting. That’s why it was so heavily favored back in the 50’s. Where you have a problem is if there’s a meltdown or leak. IF that happens, then it’s tremendously poisonous.
According my Professor of Chemistry Dr. Divan Fard PhD who currently works on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, it is fact that CFC’s are used to enrich uranium from Ur238 to it’s smaller half lives of Ur235 and Ur233. The process of enrichment is very dirty and use huge amounts of CFC every year (100,000+ tons). CFC’s are very potent green house gases.
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