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The Fukushima Accident
Published in Jennifer F. Sklarew, Building Resilient Energy Systems, 2023
The 2021 Strategic Energy Plan contains several pages dedicated to the fuel cycle, including a reference to the aforementioned utilities’ plan to implement pluthermal in at least 12 nuclear reactors by 2030. Much of the plan’s language on the fuel cycle is adapted from FEPC’s December 2020 statement on the pluthermal program (The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, 2020). Reflecting utility and government priorities for economic resilience, as well spent fuel solutions to promote social resilience, the 2021 plan links nuclear waste disposal and the fuel cycle policy. It describes spent fuel reprocessing and use of MOX fuel as an effective use of resources and a means of reducing the volume of high-level radioactive waste. The text also solicits public cooperation, several times mentioning efforts to secure understanding and approval from local municipalities and the international community for fuel reprocessing and the pluthermal program. The reference to the international community suggests a response to the aforementioned proliferation concerns expressed by U.S. officials, substantiated by the plan’s recognition of the effects of Rokkasho completion delays and Monju decommissioning, as well as a commitment to reducing plutonium stockpiles and avoiding stockpiling of plutonium not planned for use in reactor fuel. The plan also describes planned efforts on R&D to establish reprocessing and disposal technologies for used MOX fuel by the latter half of the 2030s.
The Other Energy Sources
Published in Anco S. Blazev, Power Generation and the Environment, 2021
Mixed oxide, or MOX, nuclear fuel, is a blend of plutonium and natural or depleted uranium which behaves similarly to the enriched uranium feed, for which most nuclear reactors were designed. MOX fuel is an alternative to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in the light water reactors (LWR) which are used in global nuclear power generation.
Nuclear Power Technologies through Year 2035
Published in D. Yogi Goswami, Frank Kreith, Energy Conversion, 2017
Kenneth D. Kok, Edwin A. Harvego
The purpose of reprocessing is to recover the uranium and plutonium in the spent fuel. As discussed earlier these materials contain a large amount of potential energy if they are reused as reactor fuel. Plutonium separated in the PUREX process can be mixed with uranium to form a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. Plutonium from the dismantlement of weapons can be used in the same way.
Impact of MOX fuel use in light-water reactors: long-term radiological consequences of disposal of high-level waste in a geological repository
Published in Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 2023
Eriko Minari, Satsuki Kabasawa, Morihiro Mihara, Hitoshi Makino, Hidekazu Asano, Masahiko Nakase, Kenji Takeshita
Provision of a safe solution for the management of radioactive waste management is becoming increasingly important and is the key for the sustainable utilization of nuclear energy. In Japan, one of the major considerations in the management of radioactive waste is the disposal of vitrified high-level waste (HLW) generated from reprocessing of spent fuel (SF). Disposal of HLW ensures its isolation from the biosphere and avoids any significant impact to the public. It is widely agreed by nuclear waste management experts that disposal of vitrified HLW from the reprocessing of UO2 spent fuel can be engineered to a satisfactory degree of safety; however, it is necessary to critically examine future fuel-cycle systems that use mixed oxide (MOX) fuel manufactured from SF with the Pu separated. Over the last several decades, while fast breeder reactors have been zealously developed, the usage of MOX fuel in light-water reactors (LWRs) was taken as an alternative back-end policy option. In Japan, the government has acknowledged the importance of promoting research and development on fast breeder reactors; however, the likely timing of operating such reactors commercially is as yet undecided and their future remains unclear [1–3]. Under these circumstances, the usage of MOX fuel in LWRs will be necessary in several decades in order to close the nuclear fuel cycle. Therefore, it is necessary to study the effects of geological disposal of vitrified HLW that originates from the reprocessing of MOX-LWR fuels.
Improved Disposition of Surplus Weapons-Grade Plutonium Using a Metallic Pu-Zr Fuel Design
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2023
Braden Goddard, Aaron Totemeier
Despite the closure of the MFFF before its completion, the United States and other countries have had considerable experience using MOX fuel in commercial LWRs (Refs. 11, 12, and 13). MOX fuel has been used in commercial nuclear reactors since the 1980s, with most of its current use occurring in France, other countries in Europe, and Japan.14 These countries primarily use MOX fuel that contains recycled plutonium from used LWR fuel. This recycled plutonium has higher concentrations of non-239Pu isotopes of plutonium and is thus less fissile compared with weapons-grade plutonium. While MOX fuel that contains recycled plutonium must have 7% to 11% of its heavy metal as plutonium, with the rest consisting of depleted uranium, MOX fuel that uses weapons-grade plutonium needs only a 5% plutonium heavy metal fraction due to the large 239Pu isotopic abundance.
Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty (BEPU): Why It Is Still Not Widely Used
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2019
Evgeny Ivanov, Giovanni Bruna, Antonio Sargeni, Franck Dubois
This study has been intended to assess whether the last term would be reduced due to progress in modeling and knowledge of nuclear physics. It should be noted that there is no available mock-up experiment representative of mixed oxide (MOX)gMOX fuel is made of plutonium and uranium oxides.–loaded systems with epithermal spectra as it seems complicated to establish brand new ones for reasons of cost and safety. Indeed, an epithermal spectrum means the worst neutron economy and hence the biggest critical mass (i.e., increased costs) while any variations of moderation ratio—indifferently increasing or decreasing—insert positive reactivity (making a safety issue). Thus, we had to use available undermoderated and overmoderated IEs together with a few epithermal ones somehow “enveloping” the field of interest in order to transpose observations onto the applications.14