11. A ship now is headed to Japan from France with nuclear waste left over after reprocessing spent fuel to extract plutonium for the Monju reactor. 12. Although plutonium can be extracted from the reactors, its low quality would make it unfit for producing a nuclear bomb, Ryabyev said. 13. But it has little capability to reprocess spent reactor fuel and sends it to Britain and France, where plutonium is extracted to be recycled as fuel. 14. China now has three nuclear power plants producing the waste from which plutonium can be extracted. 15. COGEMA receives spent nuclear fuel from other countries and extracts plutonium which it sends back. 16. Despite its repeated denials that it has a nuclear weapons program, North Korea is suspected to have extracted enough plutonium to make at least one atomic bomb. 17. Despite its repeated denials, North Korea is suspected of having extracted enough plutonium from its old reactors to make one or two atomic bombs. 18. India built research reactors that could extract plutonium that could be used in nuclear explosions, but the radioactive compound was subject to international restrictions. 19. It is far more difficult to extract plutonium from light-water reactors than from the older style graphite reactors that North Korea now has. 20. It is harder to extract plutonium for use in nuclear weapons from such reactors. |
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