Mito, Japan, 12 April: The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute announced Friday [12 April] it has successfully refined plutonium removed from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons into plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, which was then burned in a Russian nuclear reactor.

Officials of the institute said it is the first international cooperation effort under which a Japanese institute dismantled Russian nuclear weapons

The institute has processed about 20 kg of plutonium, taken from Russian nuclear weapons in cooperation with Russia's Research Institute for Atomic Reactors (RIAR), into MOX fuel since 1999.

The institute then burned the fuel in the Russian BN600 fast reactor, and confirmed there were no abnormalities in the fuel, the officials said.

The institute is expected to dispose of 20 tonnes of plutonium to be extracted from dismantled Russian nuclear weapons by 2020, the officials said.

MOX fuel is designed to be used in light-water reactors in the so-called "pluthermal process", which the Japanese government has deemed necessary for its nuclear fuel cycle policy.

BBC Monitoring/ BBC

/BBC Monitoring/ BBC.

All Material Subject to Copyright