MOX fuel - details that matter....

Plutonium threat at Japan reactor, expert warns

Masashi Goto - worked for Toshiba as a reactor researcher and designer

"more volatile and toxic"
"MOX also has a lower melting point than the other fuels"

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-20042852-76.html

AND.....

MOX Battle: Mixed Oxide Nuclear Fuel Raises Safety Questions

One of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi reactors contains a blend of uranium and plutonium fuel that may soon find use in the U.S. Does it pose more risks than standard uranium fuel?

By John Matson | March 25, 2011

.....

Robert Alvarez, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank, says that MOX is not the best way to irreversibly render plutonium unsuitable for weapons use. "If you really want to pursue the path of irreversibility, there are probably cheaper, easier ways to do it," he says. One way would be to blend the plutonium down to a low concentration and put it in the DoE's Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in the New Mexico desert. With the price tag attached to the MFFF, "it's certainly not something you'd think you could make money off," Alvarez says. "I kind of see it as a nuclear equivalent to a bridge to nowhere." ..."the future of MOX fuel remains somewhat uncertain in the U.S. "The DoE still can't find a utility that's willing to take this stuff..."

Edwin Lyman, senior scientist for global security at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington, D.C., argues that MOX is more likely to cause nuclear accidents than ordinary uranium fuel and is liable to release more harmful material in the event of an accident. "Plutonium has different properties than uranium 235 that generally tend to degrade some of the safety systems in nuclear plants," Lyman says. For instance, because weapons-grade plutonium fissions more readily than uranium 235, reactors may need more robust control rods—neutron absorbers that shut down the nuclear chain reaction when inserted into a reactor's core. "You never get quite as much margin even after doing all that as you do with uranium," Lyman says.

Lyman authored a study in 2001 in Science & Global Security showing that radioactive leakage from a meltdown with MOX fuel, which in addition to plutonium has higher levels of radioactive isotopes such as americium 241 and curium 242, would be deadlier than a low-enriched uranium meltdown. "Because plutonium is so much more radiotoxic than many of the other radionuclides, even if it's released in relatively small concentrations it can have an impact on the effects," Lyman says. He adds that it is not possible at the moment to identify how much the MOX fuel in Fukushima reactor No. 3 has contributed to the radioactive plumes emanating from the plant.

Lyman questions whether even TVA will be a willing taker. "I don't see why any utility, even a government-owned one like TVA, would want to dabble with this stuff," he says.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mox-fuel-nuclear

AND....

MOX fuel rods used in Japanese Nuclear Reactor present multiple dangers

Plutonium is at its most dangerous when it is inhaled and gets into the lungs. The effect on the human body is to vastly increase the chance of developing fatal cancers.

http://www.dcbureau.org/20110315782/natural-resources-news-service/mox-f...

AND....

What is MOX?
http://www.nirs.org/factsheets/basicmoxinfo.htm

AND ....

MOX plutonium fuel used in Fukushima's Unit 3 reactor two million times more deadly than enriched uranium

http://www.naturalnews.com/031736_plutonium_enriched_uranium.html

AND......

Current technology DOES NOT eliminate ....Plutonium from reprocessed fuel is STILL REMAINS in the spent fuel....

Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel

....However, at present the general policy is not to reprocess used MOX fuel, but to store it and await the advent of fuel cycle developments related to Generation IV fast neutron reactor designs.

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf29.html

AND....

go google MOX fuel YOURSELF...

(Note: the ebay link does not work.... (yet))