NUCLEAR FUELS NUGGETS : PLUTONIUM GLOBAL ESSAY

U.S. plans to give '' plutonium '' to start-ups as nuclear fuel. Experts and nonproliferation experts are wary of the proposal for using weapons-grade material.

The Trump administration is moving forward with a plan to provide Cold War era plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads to companies that want to convert the dangerous material into fuel for nuclear power plants.

The plan has generated debate and some unease among nonproliferation experts. If finalised, it would mark the first time that U.S. government has made weapons grade plutonium available to private companies.

The Energy Department has more than 50 tons of surplus plutonium left over from nuclear weapons programs, and the agency had previously been planning to dilute much of that material and bury it.

Some of the nuclear start-ups trying to obtain that plutonium say transforming the waste into fuel is a better way to dispose of it.

Last month, the Energy Department said that it had selected five companies to enter into '' advanced negotiations '' to potentially receive some surplus plutonium.

That includes OKLO, a California based nuclear power company, which plans to partner with Newcleo, a European developer of advanced nuclear reactors.

The world only has a finite amount of uranium. If nuclear power was to expand greatly across the planet, countries may eventually need some sort of reprocessing to power these reactors.

'' Plutonium-based fuels and reprocessing have a poor track record when introduced to civilian nuclear energy progress, '' Ernest Moniz, a nuclear physicist who served as energy secretary during the Obama Administration, wrote last year.

Trying to revive the efforts, he added, '' would introduce long recognized security risks and have the unintended consequences of impeding energy expansion just as momentum builds for such an outcome.''  

!WOW! thanks Brad Plumer.