On Wed, 08 Mar 2006 12:29:13 GMT someone who may be "dennis@home"
wrote this:-

The original reactors did not provide any power.

I know that the two piles did not provide any electricity. However,
they were and are not the only things there.

They built the power station much latter after they had made the weapons.

The nuclear weapons were not just made once and then that was that.

The "power stations" at Windscale and Chapelcross were always
improved piles, which is why they were always operated by BNFL. Any
electricity they generated was a bonus.

The Magnox "power stations" were actually still part bomb making
devices, though the electricity was more than a bonus by then. Spent
fuel rods from these "power stations" were reprocessed at Windscale
alongside spent fuel rods. According to Bellona, who are seldom
criticised on their facts though some disagree about their stance,
"Over its lifetime, B204 produced a total of 3.6 tonnes of
weapons-grade plutonium, of which nearly 400 kilograms were produced
from fuel from the Windscale reactors in the period 1951-1957; A
further three tonnes were produced using fuel from Calder Hall and
Chapelcross; and 400 kilograms were produced using fuel from other
Magnox plants."

http://www.bellona.no/en/energy/nucl...001/21736.html




--
David Hansen, Edinburgh
I will *always* explain revoked encryption keys, unless RIP prevents me
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/00023--e.htm#54