New satellite imagery has confirmed that Israel's recent airstrike on Iran caused significant damage to the Arak heavy water reactor—also known as the Khondab facility—located about 250 kilometres ...

Satellite pictures from Maxar Technologies, dated June 19, confirm that Israel's recent airstrike caused substantial structural damage to Iran's heavy water reactor facility at Arak, also known as ...

A plan to dilute and dispose of excess plutonium dating back to the Cold War was frozen by an executive order President Donald Trump issued late last month. Instead, the order directs Energy ...

The proposed plutonium pit facility at Savannah River Site will reconstruct a massive 500-room partially completely abandoned building designed for the Mixed Oxide Plant. The spectacularly failed ...

Plutonium has accumulated at Sellafield for decades as a byproduct of spent nuclear fuel. The government had been exploring the possibility of reusing the stockpile as mixed oxide fuel (MOX), in which ...

A shipment of samples of plutonium oxide is en route from the UK to a laboratory at Orano's Melox plant in southern France. The samples will be used to determine if the plutonium can be used in the ...

The plutonium can then be used in the manufacture of MOX fuel, to substitute for fresh uranium oxide fuel. A single recycle of plutonium in the form of MOX fuel increases the energy derived from the ...

More information: Stephen K. Wilke et al, Plutonium oxide melt structure and covalency, Nature Materials (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-024-01883-3 ...

B: Initially, plutonium oxide samples were matte grey but they changed to shiny black after intense heating. C: The inset shows a sample after heating under pure O2 gas.

Getting to know how plutonium behaves The project builds on previous fundamental Argonne research, which found that the plutonium in the tanks takes the form of plutonium oxide nanoparticles.

The raw materials for the MOX fuel pellets includes plutonium oxide obtained during the processing of used fuel from conventional VVER reactors alongside depleted uranium oxide, obtained by ...