Two leaky American nuclear-fuel plants dating from the 1950s released 373
tonnes of a CFC gas in 1999, 14 per cent of releases worldwide, according to the
US Environmental Protection Agency. CFC-114 is used in cooling systems and
asthma inhalers. The Montreal Protocol permits some production for inhalers, but
the amount released from these plants, operated by the US Enrichment
Corporation, exceeded any new production. The plants enrich fissionable
uranium-235 in natural uranium for use as reactor fuel. The company closed one
of the plants in May.
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