Global Security Newswire: China Boasts Atomic Fuel Reprocessing Progress
Chinese state media yesterday said the nation's nuclear scientists have learned how to reprocess spent atomic fuel, a technique capable of producing additional power plant fuel as well as weapons material, the Associated Press reported.
China's perfection of nuclear reprocessing technology would allow its atomic energy industry to make more efficient use of existing fuel reserves, CCTV state television reported.
Japan, India and Russia also engage in atomic fuel reprocessing, which allows for the recovery of unused plutonium and uranium from nuclear reactors. Nuclear reprocessing is a closely guarded industrial asset. South Korea is hoping to win the right to reprocess its own spent fuel in forthcoming negotiations with the United States for a new civilian nuclear trade pact.
Specifics about China's own reprocessing technology are classified, CCTV reported. No time line was supplied for when the East Asian nuclear power would implement the technology on a large scale.
As the reprocessing of plutonium can produce bomb-grade material, nuclear nonproliferation advocates are generally opposed to the technology's global spread (Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Jan. 3).
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