This is the stuff that atomic bombs and nuclear reactor fuel are made from.
The danger from nuclear waste comes mainly from dust-like particles containing radioactive isotopes of iodine, cesium and strontium that could be released if the reactor fuel is allowed to become too hot.
Paying the Russians to do the blending down faster but to store the extra reactor fuel, say the researchers, would get the job done more quickly and without flooding the civilian uranium market.
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Nuclear reactor fuel is enriched to 3-5% Uranium-235.
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After Qom, Iran appeared to back off a bit by agreeing in principle to ship abroad much of its uranium stock (a bomb's worth or thereabouts if sufficiently re-enriched) for reworking to provide the needed reactor fuel.
South Korean negotiators had been seeking a new nuclear-cooperation agreement with the U.S. that would allow it to begin enriching uranium and reprocessing spent reactor fuel, arguing these technologies are crucial for Seoul to expand and secure its civilian nuclear-power program.
Thus, it reasonably bars the export of HEU for use as reactor fuel or as targets to produce medical isotopes except on an interim basis to recipients who provide assurances that an alternative nuclear fuel or target will be used in their facilities whenever possible.
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In exchange, the EU diplomats publicly assured the Iranians that, their countries would reward improved behavior (such as Tehran's agreement not to reprocess nuclear reactor fuel and its signing up to - and implementing - a new, more intrusive inspection accord with the IAEA) with still more Western nuclear technology.
The key risk of storing spent fuel at reactor sites is radiation exposure from spent fuel that has caught fire when it is stored in a pool.
The No. 4 unit doesn't have live fuel in its reactor, but still holds waste fuel from earlier generation operations.
The dome in Unit 4, however, was removed in November 2010 and the fuel removed for reactor maintenance and to add new fuel rods.
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The reactor's fuel rods were damaged, but the vessels in which they were contained were intact.
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Rival ideas withered, among them the thorium liquid-fuel reactor, powered by molten fluoride salt containing thorium.
Liquid-fuel reactor technology was developed at Oak Ridge National Labs in the 1960s.
Fourteen years of no-new-nuke-orders later, uranium mining's drop in popularity came with the post-Cold War decision to buy Soviet weapons and turn them into reactor-grade fuel.
The company, Air Fuel Syndication, then uses the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to produce methanol which in turn is passed through a gasoline fuel reactor, creating petrol.
The irradiated fuel can then be unloaded from the reactor, the U-233 separated from the thorium, and fed back into another reactor as part of a closed fuel cycle.
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Restarting cooling to the spent fuel pool at reactor 4 had been of particular urgency for Tepco as it had the highest number of fuel assemblies stored there, Kyodo news agency reported.
Recently the plant was given permission move fuel from Reactor 2 to Reactor 1 to continue generating electricity.
That could be a problem if the time comes to transport spent fuel from reactor sites to a central storage facility.
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The enormous heat generated by the radioactive fuel in the reactor core needs a constant flow of cold water.
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What makes this incredible reactor so different is its fuel source: thorium.
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Where most attention has centred on reactors 1, 2 and 3, there is also concern about the spent fuel pond in reactor building 4.
During a routine run in 1986 a few days after the Chernobyl fire, one of the pebbles became lodged in a pipe feeding the fuel to the reactor.
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In early April, the cooling system at one of the pools containing spent - but highly radioactive - fuel rods in reactor number three broke down for about three hours.
In the past, Russia has allayed western fears by belittling Iran's nuclear expertise, and drawing attention to an agreement whereby Russia would take back used fuel from the reactor at Bushehr.
It has its hands in every part of the nuclear industry, from uranium mining to enrichment to fuel fabrication to reactor design and construction to maintenance and refueling to reprocessing and recycling.
Each fuel assembly is typically used in the reactor for 4 to 6 years, after which most of the fuel it contains is spent, and the uranium dioxide is no longer cost-efficient at producing energy.
The icky sludge and saltcake generated from making weapons is nothing like fuel from a power reactor.
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The Japanese government said Monday that the fuel rods in one reactor have fused together in a partial meltdown.
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