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The US has about 90 tons of weapons-capable plutonium, while Russia has 128 tons. [1] The US declared 60 tons as excess, while Russia declared 50 tons excess. [1] The two sides agreed that each would eliminate 34 tons. [1] The agreement regulates the conversion of non-essential plutonium into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel used to produce electricity. [2]
To reduce the concentration of Pu-240 in the plutonium produced, weapons program plutonium production reactors (e.g. B Reactor) irradiate the uranium for a far shorter time than is normal for a nuclear power reactor. More precisely, weapons-grade plutonium is obtained from uranium irradiated to a low burnup.
The reactor is part of the final step for a plutonium-burner core (a core designed to burn and, in the process, destroy, and recover energy from, plutonium) [4] The plant reached its full power production in August 2016. [5] According to Russian business journal Kommersant, the BN-800 project cost 140.6 billion rubles (roughly 2.17 billion ...
Trace amounts of plutonium-238, plutonium-239, plutonium-240, and plutonium-244 can be found in nature. Small traces of plutonium-239, a few parts per trillion , and its decay products are naturally found in some concentrated ores of uranium, [ 54 ] such as the natural nuclear fission reactor in Oklo , Gabon . [ 55 ]
15. Plutonium. Cost: $4,400-$5,600 per gram. The devastating power of nuclear weapons, such as those used on Japan in World War II, probably makes plutonium more well-known than it otherwise might be.
“Cleanup at Los Alamos is long delayed,” Coghlan said, adding that annual spending for the plutonium pit work has neared $2 billion in recent years while the cleanup budget for legacy waste is ...
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Plutonium recovered from nuclear weapons or other sources can be blended with uranium fuel to produce a mixed-oxide fuel. In June 2000, the US and Russia agreed to dispose of 34 kilotonnes (75 × 10 ^ 6 lb) each of weapons-grade plutonium by 2014. The US undertook to pursue a self-funded dual track program (immobilization and MOX).