Japan: into a new stage with the Japanese recycling programme

Media Release from the AREVA corporation, 24 January 2011

ACTIVITIES / DOWNSTREAM The Takahama nuclear plant, operated by the Japanese power company KANSAI, began on 21 January to produce electricity from MOX fuel supplied by AREVA MELOX. After the signing of a contract in 2008*, a first delivery of fuel had taken place in June 2010, and a second is scheduled for 2011.

The making of MOX fuel by AREVA contributes to the recycling of nuclear fuels in Japan by means of contracts signed over the last 15 years with the Japanese power companies TEPCO, KANSAI, CHUBU, KYUSHU, SHIKOKU, EPDC, CHUGOKU and HOKKAIDO.

The loading of the MOX materials into the core of reactor 3 in the Takahama plant had been done in December 2010. These fuels, made in 2009 at the MELOX factory in the Gard (S. France), contain recycled plutonium that comes from spent fuels treated by the AREVA factory at La Hague (Normandy).

According to Jean-Pierre Gros, Director of Recycling at AREVA, “This fourth loading of recycled MOX fuel by Kansai shows the success of our long-term partnership with the Japanese power companies”.

Since 1995, the MELOX factory has been making MOX fuel for numerous countries including Germany, the USA, France, Japan and Switzerland. Made with uranium and plutonium oxides, MOX is a recycling solution for the plutonium extracted from spent fuels.

With 1700 tonnes of heavy metal produced until now, MELOX is the world number one for the making of MOX fuels. In France, 21 reactors supplying more than 10% of the nuclear electricity, use MOX. In Japan, 4 reactors are currently loaded with MOX: Genkai operated by Kyushu, Ikata operated by Shikoku, Fukushima-Daiichi operated by Tepco and Takahama by Kansai.

• Contract signed between MELOX SA, responsible for making MOX fuel, and NFI, responsible for loading it for the power company.

According to some sources, September 2010 was the month when the MOX that AREVA supplied to TEPCO was loaded into the Fukushima Daiishi reactor n° 3 and began to operate.
Concerning MOX, plutonium and related matters, see :
FUKUSHIMA : un drame et un avertissement