Two pieces of a highly radioactive fuel rod are
missing from a Vermont nuclear plant, and engineers planned to search
onsite for the nuclear material, officials said Wednesday.
[...]
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said it was
possible the spent fuel was mixed in with a shipment of low-level
nuclear waste and ended up at a repository in South Carolina, or a
facility in Washington state. He said it was also possible it was taken
to a nuclear testing facility run by General Electric, which designed
the plant. The material would be fatal to anyone who came in contact
with it without being properly shielded, Sheehan said. Spent nuclear
fuel also could be used by terrorists to construct so-called dirty
bombs that would spread deadly radiation with conventional explosives.

In 2002 a Connecticut nuclear plant was fined $288,000 after a similar loss. That fuel was never accounted for.