US to increase funding to secure Russian military materials

The US government has almost doubled the amount of money it is investing in programmes to improve security at Russia nuclear weapons complexes. The US have been working at sites of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency to help secure nuclear materials from the cold war.

Collaboration in the past between Russia and the US has resulted in Russian uranium from military programmes being downblended and sent to be used in US nuclear power stations. Recently, around 10% of the electricity in the US was generated from uranium sent from Russia.

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Russian-built reactor operates at full power in China

The Tianwan 2 nuclear reactor, built by Russia in China, operated at full power for five days in mid-July. The plant is due to enter full commercial service in a few months. The Russians have already built one reactor at the Tianwan site and they have contracts to build two more soon.

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Nuclear facility in Iran to be inspected

The International Atomic Energy Authority says that it is going to visit the Arak heavy water reactor in Iran. The reactor, due to be completed in 2009, is called a research reactor by the Iranians, although heavy water reactors can be used to breed plutonium from uranium. The IAEA inspectors should visit the site of the reactor by the end of July 2007

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UKAEA fined for workers breathing in plutonium

The UKAEA at Dounreay have been fined £15,000 because workers breathed in a very small amount of plutonium when opening contaminated lead bricks in plastic bags.

The workers weren't using the correct protective suits and there were no notices on the plastic bags to let them know what the content was.

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