Use of plutonium fuels also increases the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation.

Ten reactors that had produced weapons grade plutonium have been shut down.

During the Cold War, the project expanded to include nine nuclear reactors and five large plutonium processing complexes, which produced plutonium for most of the more than 60,000 weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal.

A drawback is that gallium compounds are corrosive and so if the plutonium is recovered from dismantled weapons for conversion to plutonium dioxide for power reactors, there is the difficulty of removing the gallium.

Plutonium produced at the remaining three reactors which generate heat and electricity has not been used for nuclear weapons since 1994.

Pyongyang violated its obligations under the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty by secretly reprocessing enough plutonium to produce two nuclear weapons in the early 1990 s.

Now, plutonium, 10 to 13 pounds this. This is enough plutonium to create a Nagasaki size atomic weapon.

This is plutonium containing less than 80 per cent plutonium 238, highly enriched uranium (HEU) and uranium 233.

Since plutonium 238, plutonium 240 and plutonium 242 are fertile, accumulation of these and other nonfissile isotopes is less of a problem than in thermal reactors, which cannot burn them efficiently.

After consultation with his staff, Bush responded that, absent a plutonium extraction facility, US intelligence could not confirm that the plant comprised a nuclear weapons program.

About 121 incidents were reported to the Agency in 2004, some of which involved weapons usable highly enriched uranium or plutonium being smuggled across national borders.

That you'd need 10 to 13 pounds of plutonium.

An ensuing arms race during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union produced tens of thousands of nuclear weapons that used uranium metal and uranium derived plutonium 239.

Similarly, although a serious fire could detonate the explosives, destroying the pit and spreading plutonium to contaminate the surroundings as has happened in several weapons accidents, it could not cause a nuclear explosion.

Plutonium(III) chloride is the chemical compound with the formula PuCl3.

The hard part is obtaining the fissionable materials plutonium or highly enriched uranium.

In order to produce plutonium the Israelis needed a large supply of uranium ore.

The IAEA reports that Iran will use the TRR to test fuel for the IR 40 reactor, a reactor that the UN Security Council has demanded that Iran stop building because it could be used to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.

For its part, after announcing the cessation of the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, France decided in February 1996 to close and dismantle its facilities for the production of such materials at Pierrelatte and Marcoule.

He said, It's easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.

The Chernobyl disaster contaminated the Belarusian territory with long lived caesium, strontium and plutonium radionuclides.

In addition, a number of countries with nuclear energy programs have the capability, if they choose, to manufacture nuclear weapons within a matter of months if their security perceptions change, because they have mastered the critical technology uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing.

That loophole is all the more troubling in light of French press reports this week concerning Western intelligence on the construction of facilities in Shiraz that may be used to separate plutonium in order to create the fissile material needed for nuclear weapons.

(iv) Commit themselves to expediting agreement on alternatives, consistent with the Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons principles of the right to peaceful uses and the obligations for non proliferation, to the acquisition of domestic uranium enrichment and plutonium separation facilities

We therefore believe that in order to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons it is crucial to strengthen the supervisory competencies of the IAEA and to control more effectively the stages in the nuclear fuel cycle that involve uranium enrichment and plutonium processing.

Chemical compounds including such material and plutonium in spent fuel elements also belong to this category.

A very important case is the PUREX process (plutonium uranium extraction process) which is used to separate the plutonium and the uranium from the spent fuel products from a nuclear reactor, and to be able to dispose of the waste products.

And in 2004, the IAEA blew the whistle on South Korea s non safeguarded plutonium and enrichment experiments.

Due to the radioactivity of plutonium, all of its compounds, PuCl3 included, are warm to the touch.

And the Soviet Union followed with a research reactor from which Libyan scientists extracted small amounts of plutonium.

This is the first time that the plutonium rich carbide fuel has been reprocessed anywhere in the world.

Specific concern was expressed about both the environmental and proliferation risks of plutonium reprocessing and nuclear materials shipments.

Now you might want to look at plutonium as another fissionable material that you might use in a bomb.

The energy derived from splitting uranium and plutonium atoms was originally used for the ultimate weapon, the atomic bomb.

So, Iran, it seems, will be able to advance its plutonium program during the six month confidence building period.

12. Supports continued efforts by the United States of America and the Russian Federation to implement the 1997 Agreement concerning Cooperation regarding Plutonium Production Reactors and the 2000 Agreement concerning the Management and Disposition of Plutonium Designated as No Longer Required for Defence Purposes and Related Cooperation

In World War II, from 1942 to 1945, Mulliken directed the Information Office for the University of Chicago's Plutonium project.

In addition, Israeli scientists probably helped construct the G 1 plutonium production reactor and UP 1 reprocessing plant at Marcoule.

Recycling proponents want ultimately to build a fleet of fast neutron reactors that could consume the plutonium and other fissionable material.

Boosting reduces the amount of plutonium needed in a weapon to below the quantity which would be vulnerable to this effect.

Because primaries tend to be bulky, especially in diameter, plutonium is the fissile material of choice for pits, with beryllium reflectors.

Back then, North Korea was restarting its Yongbyon nuclear facility and producing plutonium, thus strengthening its bargaining position vis à vis the US.

In March 1996, the IAEA reported that North Korea was not complying with efforts to verify plutonium held at the Yongbyon nuclear facility.

The Rocky Flats plant near Boulder, Colorado, was built in 1952 for pit production and consequently became the plutonium and beryllium fabrication facility.

Iran has also offered to renounce plutonium extraction technology, thus ensuring that its heavy water reactor at Arak cannot be used to make bombs either.