1. Fast neutrons are needed to make plutonium, the nuclear fuel that the breeder was meant to produce. 2. Hanford, which made plutonium for nuclear weapons for four decades, remains the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation. 3. In a kind of modern alchemy, plutonium is made by irradiating uranium in a nuclear reactor, turning it from one element into another. 4. Of these sites, only the B reactor, which made plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb, is being proposed for eventual year-round tourism. 5. Reconstituted fuel rods could, theoretically, be used to make plutonium. 6. What are the consequences if North Korea does make more weapons-grade plutonium? 7. Also included in the government plan was continued construction of a nuclear power plant at a facility that made plutonium for the first Soviet atomic bombs. 8. American and Israeli experts say the reactors will be able to make plutonium, the radioactive material essential to the production of nuclear weapons. 9. At the time, North Korea was believed to have made enough plutonium for one or two atomic bombs. 10. Iran says it wants the reactor to produce electricity, not make plutonium for nuclear weapons. |