Last week, the Department of Energy announced a dual-track approach to disposing of the U.S.'s surplus weapons plutonium. Under this "hybrid option," part of the 52.5 tons of excess military plutonium would be mixed with nuclear waste, immobilized in glass or ceramic form (vitrification), and eventually buried in a geologic repository. The other part would be incorporated into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, a mixture of plutonium and uranium oxides, and consumed in commercial nuclear reactors. The process of disposing of the excess plutonium would take 25 to 30 years and cost about $2.3 billion.
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