[en] With demand for mixed oxide fuel increasing, the French MELOX plant, due to enter commercial operation in the mid-1990s, will help to satisfy requirements until well after the beginning of the next century. The main features of the plant design are outlined. (author)

[en] As part of the process of uprating and expanding its mixed oxide fuel fabrication plant at Mol-Dessel in Belgium, Belgonucleaire is introducing new, automated devices to speed production and to reduce occupational dose. (author)

[en] The accumulated amount of MOX fuel fabricated at PNC is about 100 ton MOX. The number of irradiated fuel rods is about 40,000. None of the fuel rods irradiated in JOYO and FUGEN has failed until now. This indicates that our design, fabrication, quality control and other technologies are reliable. The achievements of the development of the MOX fuel fabrication technology are concentrated in PFPF, in which remote controlled and automated operation systems are fully adopted. The technology related to MOX fuel fabrication has basically been established in Japan. Moreover, PNC will continue at advancements and improvements of the MOX fuel fabrication technology, which are required to achieve the commercialization

[en] A physical inventory verification (PIV) was simulated at a mixed-oxide fuel fabrication facility. Safeguards inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conducted the PIV exercise to test inspection procedures under ''realistic but relaxed'' conditions. Nondestructive assay instrumentation was used to verify the plutonium content of samples covering the range of material types from input powders to final fuel assemblies. This paper describes the activities included in the exercise and discusses the results obtained. 5 refs., 1 fig., 6 tabs

[en] A series of incidents and a licensing situation of mind-numbing complexity are holding up mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication at Siemens' Hanau facility in Germany. This situation is examined in this article. (Author)

[en] The structural integrity and possible failure modes of mixed-oxide fuel fabrication plants (MOFFP) subjected to different ground-motion intensities ranging from 0.1- to 1.0-g peak accelerations was studied. To perform this study, calculation models of safety-related systems to be used in the analysis were developed. Both elastic and inelastic dynamic response analyses for both horizontal and vertical ground motion were performed. Conclusions drawn regarding the structural integrity for the model MOFFP are as follows: (1) no structural damage at ground motions <0.4 g; (2) severe structural damage at 0.4 to 0.5 g; (3) complete building collapse at >0.5 g; and (4) building collapse before equipment failure. (U.S.)

No abstract available

[en] As more plutonium becomes available from the operation of commercial scale reprocessing plants there is likely to be increased demand from utilities for thermal MOX fuel to close the nuclear fuel cycle. In anticipation of this future demand, British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) in collaboration with AEA Technology, has embarked on the design and construction of a small-scale MOX fuel manufacturing plant at Sellafield - the MDF. The MDF is on schedule to be operational from the spring of 1993, with a capacity of up to 8tHM/y MOX fuel. The MDF project was first started early in 1990 and the tight schedule is being met by upgrading an existing AEA Technology facility at Sellafield, and by making use of BNFL and AEA Technology's 30 years of experience with MOX fuels. When complete, the MDF will consist of four main plant areas containing the fuel manufacturing process. (author)

[en] The plutonium inventory control (PINC) system is a real-time material accountability control system that is expected to be applied to a new large-scale plutonium fuel production facility for both fast breeder reactor and heavy water reactor at the Power Reactor and Nuclear Development Corporation. The PINC is basically a system for material control but is expected to develop into a whole facility control system, including criticality control, process control, quality control, facility protection, and so forth. Under PINC, every process and storage area is divided into a unit area, which is the smallest unit for both accountability and process control. Item and material weight automatically are accounted for at every unit area, and data are simultaneously treated by a computer network system. Sensors necessary for the system are being developed. 9 figures

No abstract available