During the decommissioning process, remaining fuel from the station's reactor will be removed and reprocessed.
These epic processes melted and reprocessed vast amounts of rock and concentrated chemical elements in new ways.
Greenpeace activists tried, and failed, to stop a ship carrying reprocessed nuclear fuel through the Panama Canal .
The MOX plant is due to start producing reprocessed fuel for use in civilian reactors in 2017 or 2018.
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In February, BNFL admitted that staff checking the size of reprocessed Mox fuel pellets destined for Japan had faked safety records.
It is cheaper, vastly cheaper, to buy in your enriched fuel and then send it back out again to be reprocessed.
When, in 1992, France (which also reprocesses commercially) returned to Japan the plutonium oxide extracted from reprocessed Japanese fuel, there was uproar.
At present, the plan is for it to be reprocessed using solvents and chemical processes to separate it into high-level and low-level components.
Existing stocks, former nukes and reprocessed fuel provide the rest.
They were working in Reactor No. 3 which is of particular concern because it is the only unit to use MOX fuel, which is reprocessed spent fuel mixed with plutonium.
The fuel in No. 3 is a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium, referred to as MOX (for mixed oxide) and manufactured by the French nuclear company AREVA. MOX fuel rods are also less stable than plutonium-free rods.
FORBES: Japanese Official: Most Dangerous Reactor May Have Ruptured, Leaking Radiation
It works on the theory that traumatic memories have not been properly processed by the brain, but can be reprocessed correctly via therapy involving eye movement, and using sounds or taps to the skin while going through the past traumas.
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