MOX fuel cycle technologies for medium and long term deployment. Proceedings

More than thirty years of reactor experience using MOX fuel as well as the fabrication of 2000 MOX assemblies with the use of 85 t of Pu separated from spent fuel from power reactors indicates that the recycling of plutonium as MOX fuel in LWRs has become a mature industry. The number of countries engaged in plutonium recycling could be increasing in the near future, aiming for the reduction of stockpiles of separated plutonium from earlier and existing reprocessing contracts. Economic and strategic considerations are the main factors on which to base such a decision to use MOX. Transport of MOX fuel assemblies is a vital element in these recycle programmes but could have the potential to be a weak link in the chain. To avoid problems, it is essential that sufficient numbers of transport flasks of the required types, licensed for the increasing Pu contents, be made available in a timely manner to keep pace with the planned increases in fabrication rates. Despite the excellent safety records for radioactive and MOX transports over many decades, continuous attention should be drawn to establishing the transport modalities, buffer stores, secure vehicles, and transport routes, at the same time accounting for public sensitivities on radioactive transports in general and MOX transport in particular. A large number of technical presentations updated and reconfirmed the good and almost defect-free performance of MOX fuel at increasingly high burn-up levels. MOX fuel is designed to meet the same operational and safety criteria as uranium fuels under equivalent conditions. This is also confirmed by the parallel development of design codes to accommodate the special characteristics of MOX. Integral and specific parameter testing of MOX fuel in normal and off-normal operation is under way in a number of countries with particular emphasis on high burnup behaviour. Here the important contributions of the OECD/NEA Halden BWR programme should be mentioned. The reactor-based weapons-grade plutonium disposition approaches proposed by the United States of America and the Russian Federation build upon proven commercial MOX fuel technologies. It was noted that a number of technical and institutional improvements were taking place. The purpose of the symposium organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency in co-operation with the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, was to exchange information on MOX fuel cycle technologies worldwide with focus on how past experience has been or can be used to progress further, either for facing more demanding fabrication and utilization conditions or for extending into new processing or utilization domains. Present technologies of MOX fuel fabrication, fuel design, performance, testing, in-core fuel management, transportation, safety analysis, safeguards and MOX fuel cycle options, including back end, were covered by the invited overview papers describing the worldwide status of the topics. Contributed papers concentrated on the differences between MOX and UO2 fuels and focused on the future, on the basis of today's perspectives and developments. The place of plutonium recycle in the context of the whole nuclear fuel cycle activity under present conditions of a deregulated electricity market and in the future, and its role in the reduction of separated civil and surplus ex-weapons plutonium stockpiles, were examined further in the discussions by participants and a panel of experts