MOX FUEL VENDOR GEARS UP FOR FUEL LICENSING, LOOKS TO LIMITED FIRST RUN

摘要

As the search continues for a dedicated buyer for fuel from the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction at the Savannah River Site, at least one fuel vendor looking at MOX licensing is calling for an initial run lasting several years before a heavier load could be burned in commercial reactors. Such a lead use assembly (LUA) of between four and eight assemblies would be used in a boiling water reactor for four-to-six years before a reload of up to 20 or 30 assemblies. The LUAs will not be ready for loading into a reactor until at least 2019, according to a licensing schedule presented by fuel vendor GE-Hitachi to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in August, but a new baseline for construction of the facility is expected to push back current schedules and increase the price significantly. "We have the first MOX reload in the 2025 time frame," GE-Hitachi Manager of Emerging Technologies Earl Saito told NW&M Monitor this week. He added, "That's 12 years out, so you have all the uncertainties of what's going to happen over the next 12 years."