Rejected MOX to be reprocessed
10 June 2009
A consignment of UK-manufactured mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel originally destined for Japanese power plants but never used because of concerns about quality control data is to be reprocessed in France.
The fuel was part of the second shipment of reprocessed plutonium recovered from Japanese spent fuel ever to be returned from Europe to Japan in 1999. The eight rods in question were intended for use in Kansai Electric Power Co's Takahama plant, but after it was discovered that quality control data had been falsified the unirradiated fuel was subsequently returned to the UK in 2002. It has been in storage at Sellafield ever since.
At the time, it was agreed between BNFL and the UK government that the fuel assemblies would be processed and the useful constituents separated out for potential reuse. In a press release from BNFL successor Sellafield Ltd, the company says it has been working for a number of years to evaluate the best option for the fuel. Contractual arrangements have now been put in place, and all necessary regulatory approvals have been obtained. The fuel in question is now formally owned by the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).
In total, sixteen unirradiated assemblies - the eight returned from Japan and a further eight unirradiated MOX fuel assemblies manufactured at Sellafield in the late 1990s but never exported - will be shipped to Areva NC's La Hague reprocessing plant in France, where the reusable constituents will be separated out and made available for making into new fuel. The waste products will be returned to Sellafield. The fuel assemblies will be shipped to France in 2014-2015.
Last year, Kansai signed a contract with Areva to supply MOX fuel for use at the Takahama plant where the rejected assemblies were originally to have been used.