Orano contracted to make MOX fuel for Japanese reactors

On 18 November, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) announced it had received an order from Kyushu Electric Power Company to supply 40 MOX fuel assemblies for unit 3 of its Genkai nuclear power plant. On 29 November, it received an order from Shikoku Electric Power Company to supply 24 MOX (mixed-oxide) fuel assemblies for unit 3 of its Ikata plant.

Under both these contracts, MHI will perform design of MOX fuel, and have components such as cladding tubes manufactured by Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co - part of the MHI Group - supplied to Orano, who will fabricate the MOX fuel assemblies at its Melox plant in France.

Announcing its contract with MHI, Shikoku said it reached an agreement earlier this year with Tohoku Electric Power Company, Tokyo Electric Power Company, Chubu Electric Power Company, Hokuriku Electric Power Company and Japan Atomic Power Company to transfer ownership of the plutonium it held in the UK for an equal amount of plutonium held by another power company in France. It is this plutonium that will be processed into MOX fuel for use at Ikata 3.

Orano has now announced that it has signed two MOX fuel manufacturing contracts with MHI for the 64 MOX fuel assemblies for Genkai 3 and Ikata 3.

"These new contracts strengthen our longstanding relationship with MHI and utility customers in Japan," said Corinne Spilios, senior executive vice president of Orano's Recycling Business Unit. "We are very proud of our Japanese partners' renewed confidence in our expertise. This choice underlines the relevance of recycling for our customers as a responsible and sustainable solution for managing their used fuel."

On 29 November, MHI said it had signed "several contracts" with its Japanese partners to return all waste to Japan still stored at the Orano la Hague plant. In accordance with the terms of the contracts, the equivalent in mass and radioactivity of this waste contained in the used fuel elements must be returned to Japan, a solution authorised by the French administration on 27 November. It noted the entry into force of the signed contracts was subject to the lifting of suspensive conditions.

Between 1981 and 1999, contracts for the reprocessing of used fuel were signed with ten Japanese utilities. These contracts resulted in the recycling of fuel elements from Japanese nuclear reactors and in the conditioning of the residual waste. Under the contracts, 2793 metric tonnes of fuel were processed at Orano's La Hague plant. Almost 97% of the total radioactivity has already been returned to Japan.

MHI has previously supplied 57 MOX fuel assemblies to Japanese utilities.

To date, 44 reactors worldwide have generated electricity from MOX fuel since 1972.