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NUCLEAR
NEWS FOR LIFE
RADIATION |
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U.N. inspectors start monitoring Ohio Plant
[The following is an excerpt of an article distributed
by Reuters reproduced
in part here under the Fair Use Act..]
07:43 p.m Dec 01, 1997 Eastern
By Jim Wolf
WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - United Nations inspectors on Monday began monitoring an Ohio plant diluting weapons-grade uranium into fuel to produce electricity.
In what the Clinton administration termed a milestone in nuclear arms-control verification, the International Atomic Energy Agency began installing video cameras, seals and other monitoring gear at the government-owned Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion plant at Piketon, Ohio.
``For the first time, international monitors are witnessing a nuclear weapon state take weapons-usable uranium from its military program and transform it into fuel for heating homes and lighting cities,'' Energy Secretary Federico Pena said.
Under the new procedure, an initial 3-1/2 tonnes of highly enriched uranium will be diluted, or downblended, under the supervision of IAEA monitors, Pena told reporters at the National Press Club.
The material is part of 174 metric tons of weapons-grade uranium that President Clinton declared in 1995 was beyond U.S. defense needs. Pena said all 174 tons would eventually be made available for IAEA monitoring, including 10 tons in its originial form that is already under IAEA safeguards at three Energy Department sites.
[snipped]
He said the weapons inspectors in Ohio would be drawn from the 120 IAEA member nations, mainly from the declared nuclear weapons states. ....[snipped]
The Geneva-based IAEA will conduct spot checks of the Portsmouth plant roughly twice a month from December 17 until the anticipated completion in August 1998 of the current downblending operation. ..[snipped]
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