MOX
(Mixed Oxyde fuel)

After using "reprocessing" to extract plutonium for military purposes at the UP1 plant in Marcoule and the UP2/400 plant in La Hague, France decided to implement a very large fast breeding programme: the country was going to build tens of Super-Phenix type reactors (photograph above) that would produce more plutonium than they would consume. The construction of UP2/800 (as in 800 tons per year) and UP3 plants (with the same capacity but for foreign clients) was therefore decided, and 16 tons of plutonium were thus extracted annually at the La Hague plant.

This mad undertaking must be forgotten quickly. In the light of the many problems that the international nuclear industry is experiencing with Fast Breeders (the sodium used as a coolant is also very delicate to manipulate), how can reprocessing - which, in some countries, constitutes a deliberate political choice to foster the belief that there exists a solution to the irradiated nuclear fuel management problem - be justified ?

Once Mixed Oxide (MOX) has been created in this way, a fraction of the plutonium extracted at La Hague is reused and mixed with as yet unused natural depleted uranium. This mixture contains approximately 7% plutonium. It is loaded into twenty 900 MW reactors in France. Its use is problematic, and EDF is manifesting its reluctance to use it increasingly strongly and publicly. But where would the international MOX "market" go if it was snubbed by the major French electrician ?

In compliance with national wishes, EDF is fostering the belief that the use of this much more expensive fuel is reasonable. But then who is paying ? You and I, so.