The Japan Electric Power
Development Co Ltd (J-Power) has signed an agreement with Global Nuclear
Fuel Japan (GNF-J) for the supply of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies
for use in the Ohma nuclear power plant in Aomori Prefecture, Japan.
GNF-J has outsourced the
manufacture of the MOX fuel assemblies to Areva's Melox subsidiary which
will fabricate the fuel at Melox's plant in southern France, using Japanese
plutonium recovered during the reprocessing of used fuel at Areva's
La Hague plant.
Construction of the 1383 MWe Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) at
Ohma began in May 2008. The loading of the MOX fuel is scheduled to
start in December 2013, ahead of the plant's planned start-up in November
2014.
J-Power plans to use all mixed oxide (MOX) uranium and plutonium nuclear
fuel in the reactor core of Ohma, which necessitates some design variation
from the ABWR standard. Amendments for the different reactive and thermal
properties of MOX fuel include a higher-capacity liquid control injection
system; additional safety valves to release steam; control rods with
enhanced neutron absorption; and automatic fuel inspection devices to
reduce radiation exposure to workers.
Apart from the Fugen experimental Advanced Thermal Reactor (ATR), Ohma
would be the first Japanese reactor built to run solely on MOX fuel
incorporating recycled plutonium. It will be able to consume a quarter
of all domestically-produced MOX fuel and hence make a major contribution
to Japan's 'pluthermal' policy of recycling plutonium recovered from
used fuel.
Currently, MOX fuel is produced for Japanese nuclear operators in France
and the UK. In future, Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd (JNFL) will operate a
used nuclear fuel reprocessing and recycling complex at Rokkasho, which
will enable this to be done domestically.
MOX consists of a mix of uranium and plutonium oxides, recovered from
used nuclear fuel. More than 30 power reactors in Belgium, France, Germany
and Switzerland use MOX fuel, typically as one-third of their cores.
Some units can use up to 50 percent MOX and some modern designs could
use 100 percent MOX.