Sellafield Vitrification should ensure safe storage of waste in the UK for the middle to long term. Construction of the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) was completed in 1997, though justification for the operation of the plant was not achieved until October 2001. Mixed oxide, or MOX fuel, is a blend of plutonium and natural uranium or depleted uranium which behaves similarly (though not identically) to the enriched uranium feed for which most nuclear reactors were designed. MOX fuel is an alternative to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in the light water reactors which predominate in nuclear power generation. MOX also
Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station in the region, as the radiation monitoring effort was extended in recent years. Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station The Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station (NPS; []) was the third of the Soviet Union's nuclear plants. It is situated by Zarechny in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Zarechny township was created to service the station, which is named after the Beloyarsky District. The closest city is Yekaterinburg. Two earlier reactors were constructed at Beloyarsk: an AMB-100 reactor (operational 1964–1983) and an AMB-200 reactor (operational 1967–1989). Both were supercritical water reactors; the first unit used 67 tons of uranium enriched to 1.8%, while the second unit