The Mystery Plume Rising Over Fukushima’s Reactor 3

[RobertEarl]

104. Yes, reactor #3 has MOX fuel

There has been some talk about reactor #4 also having MOX fuel. But Tepco has not copped to that.

Not only is the plutonium more deadly than uranium, it is also more reactive, meaning it gets hotter faster. There was a report from a few years ago about an American NPP operator who tried some MOX fuel at the request of the US government. Seems a lot of plutonium from old weapons has been building up and the Department of Energy folks needed to find a way to make use of that excess plutonium.

So, they stuck it in a reactor as an experiment. The operator soon discovered that - the story goes - the MOX fuel got too hot, too fast, expanding considerably, almost making it impossible to remove or control. End of experiment, in the US. Seems Tepco gave it a go?

Given that reactor #3 blew up like it did, it could be that its MOX got too hot, too fast, and BOOM!

There are a couple of plutonium recycling reactors being built. One in Japan that I'm sure of. That Japanese plant is way past the budget and time frame and still not open for recycling. Frankly, the plutonium is very hard to handle. Our US plant, in Hanford, Washington State, is a money pit full of plutonium filled tanks that are leaking.

Each reactor using uranium produces plutonium, so every day more and more plutonium is being produced and we have yet to figure out a way to safely contain it for its thousands of years life span.

Kinda crazy, ain't it?