For All Plutonium to MOX Fuel - International Cooperation for ITER Project Is Necessary -

摘要

Uses of MOX fuel in Japan's LWR nuclear power plants have been suspended since December 1995. Some of the reasons are the sodium leakage accident at the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju, BNFL's data falsification concerning MOX fuel fabrication, the fire at the Tokai reprocessing plant, the criticality accident at the JCO fuel conversion plant, concealment of data during inspection at Tokyo Electric Power Company's nuclear power plant and the secondary pipe rupture accident of Mihama Nuclear Power Station of Kansai Electric Power Company. It could be said that it all began with the accident at Monju, but the accidents and scandals afterwards were brought about by nuclear power related personnel themselves. I hope that future management of nuclear facilities are conducted with increased sense of tension by related personnel. In any case, using MOX fuel is fully unrelated to these accidents and scandals, and should be considered separately. Use of MOX fuel has been proceeding without any problems in Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland, and the go-ahead has also been given in Sweden and the U.S. Its use is gradually widely spreading. In Japan as well, Takahama-3 and -4, Fukushima Daiichi-3 and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-3 reactors have also been given loading permissions, and the Ehime Prefecture governor has given the go-ahead for its use in lkata-3 reactor. These movements have spurred restarting MOX fuel uses. Among such movement, the use of MOX fuel in the U.S., where surplus stocks of weapons-grade plutonium is converted into MOX fuel and burned, is especially meaningful. The Council for Nuclear Fuel Cycle (CNFC) sent a fact-finding team to France to witness the status of large scale MOX fuel use, and a proposed site for the International Thermonuclear Experiment Reactor (ITER).