(beide Geschichten vom New Scientist)

1. THE UK is planning to send 1800 tonnes of uranium-contaminated waste for processing in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan in central Asia. Though the move is fiercely opposed by environmental groups, the companies are expecting approval for the plan within weeks, New Scientist has uncovered. The material, which is owned by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), is being stored in 10,600 drums at the Springfields reactor fuel manufacturing plant near Preston in north-west England. The waste is mainly graphite left over from 50 years of making fuel for the UK's Magnox first-generation reactors. It is too radioactive to be disposed off at the local landfill site, Clifton Marsh, because it is mixed with about 40 tonnes of uranium.
2. Under heavy security and amidst much opposition, enough plutonium for 40 nuclear bombs is being taken by sea from the US to France for processing. The US and French authorities see the shipment as the first step in a new “atoms for peace” programme to convert 34 tonnes of plutonium from "surplus" US weapons into fuel for power stations. "This is not just important for national security, it is important for the security of the world," says Bryan Wilkes of the US National Nuclear Security Administration.

Plutonium durch die Welt karren ist wichtig für die Weltsicherheit? Da bin ich aber beruhigt.