Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Meltdown: MOX Fuel

By Patricia Jordan

On March 14, 2011, Unit 3 of the Fukushima reactor exploded, sending a huge smoke plume into the air. This particular reactor contains rods fueled with MOX plutonium. MOX plutonium fuel is two million times more deadly than enriched uranium. This information has been largely absent from most media reports on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.



MOX plutonium is a highly dangerous "mixed-oxide" (MOX) fuel that is present in six percent of the fuel rods at the plant's Unit 3 reactor. According to the Nuclear Information Resource Center, this plutonium-uranium fuel mixture is far more dangerous than enriched uranium -- a single milligram (mg) of MOX is as deadly as 2,000,000 mg of normal enriched uranium.

If even a couple milligrams of MOX plutonium were released during this explosion -- or if other explosions at the plant inflict any damage on the MOX-filled rods -- then the consequences would be more devastating than the leakage of enriched uranium. And, since no one knows for sure exactly which rods have been damaged, and whether or not the situation can actually be contained, it is only a matter of time before the world learns what can and cannot be done.

The Japanese government considered evacuating all of Tokyo, but did not evacuate Tokyo because of the confusion and fear that would happen.



The spent fuel rod pool at Reactor 4 is in danger of collapse. If it collapses and the spent fuel rods catch fire then that will contaminate all of Japan with a deathly dose of radiation that could be the equivalent of 1000 atomic bombs dropped at Hiroshima.

Uranium 238, Uranium 234 and Plutonium 239 were all used at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

• Uranium Alpha 238 is a radioactive element with a half-life of 4.5 billion years.
• Uranium Alpha 234 is a radioactive element with a half-life of 245,000 years.
• Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,100 years.

By August 2011, Fukushima had released the same amount of radioactive caesium-137 as 168 Hiroshima nuclear bombs. Read more here.

Fukushima will continue to release radiation for 1000s of years.