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Plutonium detected 45 kilometers from nuke plant Small amounts of plutonium have been detected in samples of soil taken at locations including a spot 45 kilometers away from the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This is the first time that the government has detected plutonium outside the nuclear plant since the accident. The science ministry announced on Friday that the plutonium was detected in samples taken from 6 locations in the towns of Futaba and Namie, and Iitate Village in Fukushima Prefecture --- all located northwest of the nuclear plant. The radioactive substance is believed to have been released by...

Report suggests second meltdown at reactor at Fukushima plant August 08, 2011 By TOMOOKI YASUDA / Staff Writer A second meltdown likely occurred in the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, a scenario that could hinder the current strategy to end the crisis, a scientist said. In that meltdown, 10 days after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, the fuel may have leaked to the surrounding containment vessel, according to a report by Fumiya Tanabe, a former senior researcher at what was then the government-affiliated Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. His report will be...

Higher MOX Fuel Concentration Weighed for U.S. Reactors Monday, April 11, 2011 The federal Tennessee Valley Authority and Energy Department have conducted talks on potentially substituting mixed-oxide fuel derived from nuclear-weapon material for one-third of the low-enriched uranium in several U.S. power reactors, a substantially higher proportion of MOX fuel than a crippled Japanese nuclear plant had used, the New York Times reported on Sunday (see GSN, April 5). Any TVA move on the proposal has been put off pending a review of the behavior of MOX fuel at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was severely damaged last...

ROCK HILL - Duke Power's nuclear plant on Lake Wylie is about to become the first commercial reactor to make electricity from plutonium meant for nuclear weapons. Without fanfare, tests that begin next month will cross a line that for decades separated military and commercial nuclear uses. The current policy, dating to the Clinton administration, is to make surplus bomb material unusable by burning it in power plants. Plutonium-239, blended in small amounts into a fuel that Duke will test at its Catawba plant, is chilling stuff. A single speck inhaled into the lungs can cause cancer. A softball-size lump...

<p>Just weeks after a federal judge overruled South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges' orders to forcibly prevent the Department of Energy from trucking several tons of nuke plutonium to its Savannah River Site (SRS), where it is to be converted into mixed oxide reactor fuel (MOX), Congress overruled the objections of Nevada politicos, authorizing the department to truck tens of thousands of tons of partially "spent" nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain for indefinite burial.</p>

Arrival in Great Britain of a cargo of MOX coming from Japan Tuesday September 17, 2002 - 7h42 GMT Barrow-in-furness (England), 17 seven (AFP) - a transporting ship of nuclear fuel recycled MOX arrived Tuesday at Barrow-in-Furness (the North-West of England) coming from Japan in spite of protests ecologists, brings back a journalist of the AFP. Pacific Pintail, party of Japan it there has 75 days with a cargo of five tons MOX, arrived Tuesday morning at the port of Barrow-in-Furness (the North-West of England), close to the nuclear reprocessing plant of Sellafield. Greenpeace affirms that the MOX contains...

The Department of Defence has confirmed that it will be "monitoring" the progress of a shipment of plutonium through the Irish Sea towards Sellafield, which is expected to arrive within the next two weeks. A spokesman refused to comment on the details of the operation, but confirmed that resources such as ships and aircraft would be used.The issue was raised at a meeting of the Task Force on Emergency Planning today, which was chaired by Defence Minister Michael Smith.There had been contact last week between the Departments of Marine and Defence at official level on this matter. The Department...