The article examines the history of the plutonium disposition programme and describes the political and financial manoeuvrings that have led to no weapons-grade plutonium being disposed of to date. The USA and Russia between them have approximately 100tonnes of the material available for disposal. As the USA is providing the bulk of the finance for the disposition programme, the Department of Energy
has deemed that a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel technology will be used as the disposition method for both countries. The article proposes a thorium fuel based approach which, it is claimed, will offer practical and superior means to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium in Russian VVER-1000 reactors. By this means, plutonium can be disposed of up to three times as fast as the MOX process and at significantly
lower cost. |
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