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Industrial Sites
I - The Plutonium Branch Sites
At
the Cogema plant in La Hague, the plutonium extracted from irradiated
nuclear fuel is either stored "on shelves", or directed towards one of
the three MOX fabrication plants: the Dessel plant in Belgium, the Cadarache
plant in the Durance Valley and especially the Melox installation in Marcoule
in the Gard (see above).
Later
on, the fresh MOX fuel assemblies are sent to the six 900 megawatt nuclear
power plants into whose cores it is possible to introduce MOX (up to one
third of the core volumes).
These plants are [PDF document in french] :
Once spent, these fuel assemblies are sent back to La Hague for storage. Therefore, putting part of the plutonium through a new cycle has done nothing to resolve the serious nuclear waste and plutonium management problem.
II - The MOX Fabrication Plants
At present, the only plants producing MOX at an industrial scale are located in Europe. The first MOX fuel element was loaded in Belgium in 1963. However, the plutonium industry has always encountered numerous problems, which have hindered its development. Only a few hundred tons of MOX have actually been loaded into reactors. These reactors are located in various countries, almost exclusively European.
MOX fuel is produced in Europe in the following plants :
-
The Dessel plant in Belgium. Brought into service in 1973, this plant's
capacity is 40 tons of MOX per year. The plant is owned by Belgonucleaire
and its production is commercialised by COGEMA.
-
The Cadarache plant in France. Brought into service in 1961, the plant
produces 40 tons of MOX annually. The plant is owned and operated by COGEMA.
The French safety authority has been requesting its closure since 1995
owing to its insufficient seismic resistance. However, Cogema has, in
character, defied authority and postponed the unit's definitive closure
from year to year.
-
The MELOX plant in France. Brought into service in 1995, the plant's
actual production capacity is 101 tons per year. The plant is owned by
COGEMA and FRAMATOME, and operated by COGEMA. An extension request procedure
is currently under consideration, as COGEMA wishes to bring this plant's
production up to 145 tons per year.
- The MOX demonstration factory (MDF) in the United Kingdom. This plant was brought into service in 1993, and belongs to BNFL. It is no longer in a production phase following the discovery of falsified data. The Japanese authorities refused to use the MOX fuel assemblies contained in the plant's first shipment. The shipment was therefore returned from Japan to its point of departure. When it resumes activity, MDF will remain more of a test plant than a production unit. More >>
- The Sellafield MOX plant in the United-Kingdom, whose projected production capacity was 120 tons MOX per year. This plant has encountered many problems, and today functions very badly or not at all. More >>
Detailed maps (french)
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