Nuclear reactor prepares to test fuel with plutonium

Posted on Fri, May. 27, 2005

BY BRUCE HENDERSON
Knight Ridder Newspapers

<snip> Plutonium-239, blended in small amounts into a fuel that Duke will test at its Catawba, N.C., plant, is chilling stuff. A single speck inhaled into the lungs can cause cancer. A softball-size lump flattened Nagasaki. It remains radioactive for at least 24,100 years.

Duke's test fuel, called mixed-oxide or MOX for short, won't blow up because of its diluted content. A blend of 4 percent plutonium and 96 percent uranium, the usual nuclear fuel, MOX is designed to mimic the more familiar fuels.

Nuclear nonproliferation groups say it's still a bad idea. Terrorists could steal the fuel and fashion a crude nuclear device, they say, although government experts say that wouldn't be easy. Duke won exemptions to some federal security rules for handling plutonium.

More than 20 years of MOX use in European nuclear plants, most experts agree, established its safe track record. The fuel Duke will test, however, contains more of the purer type of plutonium desirable for weapons. <snip>

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