The increasing quantities of plutonium which are fabricated, transported, burned
in reactors and stored give rise to several dangers and risks. In this chapter we will look at
them.
It is not commonly known that the reprocessing plants and MOX fuel plants in France and England are
not safeguarded by the IAEA, because they are Nuclear Weapon States (NWS). According to the
discriminating Non Proliferation Treaty NWS are exempted from IAEA safeguards. In 1995 only one
French nuclear facility (a storage facility at La Hague) was under IAEA safeguards and in England
four nuclear facilities (two storage facilities at Sellafield; two enrichment plants of Urenco at
Capenhurst).
1 These facilities were offered voluntarily for safeguards
by the countries.
Only the spent fuel rods from Non-Nuclear Weapon States at the storage sites in La Hague and
Sellafield are being safeguarded by IAEA inspectors: they count the number of rods when these
arrive and when they leave to be reprocessed, and that's it. In the European Union (EU), the IAEA
only monitors whether the bookkeeping of Euratom inspectors has been correct. This lack of
safeguarding at reprocessing plants and MOX fuel plants could have as consequence that plutonium
from Non-Nuclear Weapon States ends up in French or British nuclear weapons; for example Japanese
plutonium in French nuclear weapons.
2 It may be clear that it is rather
difficult to divert plutonium, which is inside the highly radioactive spent fuel, because
reprocessing is needed before it can be used for nuclear weapons. This is drastically changed when
the plutonium has been separated from the spent fuel in reprocessing plants. The proliferation
risks of separated plutonium, as plutoniumoxide or as MOX, are thus much greater than of plutonium
inside the spent fuel. The nuclear industry assures us there is no proliferation risk, which they
mainly base on two arguments.
- 'reactor-grade plutonium cannot be used for nuclear weapons'.
As we have seen, this is not true: two nuclear bombs made from reactor-grade plutonium have been
tested, by the UK and the US. (
see Chapter 2.2)
- 'international control by IAEA and Euratom will prevent any diversion of nuclear
materials'.
But what if no control takes place? Most of the nuclear facilities are inside the Nuclear Weapons
States, where the IAEA does not have the right to safeguard any facility, if it is not offered
voluntarily. In the five NWS, in 1995 11 nuclear facilities were offered voluntarily for IAEA
inspection. Not one reprocessing or MOX plant belongs to these 11 facilities: one power reactor and
one research reactor in China; two enrichment plants in the UK; seven storage facilities (two in
the UK; one in France; one in Russia; three in the US).
3 So this
attempt of assurance by the nuclear industry is not very convincing.
In the meantime the first case of smuggling of MOX has been reported. On August 10, 1994, at the
Munich airport in Germany, 560 grams of MOX powder was seized. Analysis showed that 350 grams (or
62%) of it was plutonium and 87% of this was Pu-239.
4
MUF stands for the difference between the quantity of nuclear materials in (part of) a facility or
container as calculated and as measured. The difference can be negative or positive. The IAEA sees
the quantity of MUF only as important if it is equal to or more than one Significant Quantity (SQ).
This is a short-sighted approach, because it is possible that over a long period, several amounts
of sensitive nuclear materials smaller than one SQ are booked as MUF. But more important: if there
is uncertainty of the exact measurements the IAEA can accept a much larger MUF than one SQ.
5 In the largescale reprocessing plants and MOX fuel plants in England and
France, it is even possible that some 3.3% of the plutonium can go missing, without any alarm being
raised.
6
On a throughput of 1,600 tons of spent fuel and 16,000 kg of plutonium per year, as is the case in
the reprocessing plants UP-2 and UP-3 in La Hague, this means that each year 528 kg of plutonium
can be missing without anybody noticing. As the number of reactors using MOX fuel increases, so
does the number of storage sites of fresh and spent MOX fuel.
An example of how large amounts of plutonium can get lost is the PFPF MOX plant in Japan, where 70
kg of plutonium were booked as MUF in 1994. Compared to the throughput of the plant, five tons of
MOX/year, equivalent to 300 kg Pu/yr, this was seen as a very large amount of MUF: more than 23%.
It was only after the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute raised public awareness that the
IAEA announced that it was taken seriously. After two years, the quantity of MUF was reduced to
about 10 kg Pu.
7
The IAEA safeguards budget has known a zero growth for more than 10 years. In 1995 the regular
safeguards budget expenditures were a meager $87.56 million, far too short to effectively safeguard
all nuclear facilities. Already in 1985 only at 514 from the 887 nuclear facilities under
safeguards inspections were carried out. At 168 from the facilities with a significant amount of
nuclear material the inspection goal was attained. It was possible to carry out only 72.9% of the
planned routine inspections (which are announced beforehand).
8 The zero
budget growth since 1985 has led to a further reduction in the attainment of inspection goals. As
Bruno Pellaud, Deputy Director General of IAEA Safeguard Division, says: "
it must be emphasized
that with a continuing zero-growth budget the Agency will not be able to cope with the extended
programs and demands placed on it".
9 At the same time the
quantities of nuclear materials under safeguards by IAEA increased enormously. Expressed in
Significant Quantities, the increase was threefold: from 31,116 SQ in 1985
10 to 90,291 SQ in 1995.
11 The annual expenditure
of safeguarding one SQ decreased from $3000 in 1980 to $1000 per SQ in 1995.
12 Director General of the IAEA, Hans Blix, said in September 1991 that the
safeguards system would have to undergo a threefold strengthening to cope effectively with suspect
cases, such as in South Africa, Iraq and North Korea.
13
Driven by the lack of funds, the trend is to reduce the number of inspections by the IAEA at
nuclear facilities.
14 In the countries of the European Union (EU),
inspection efforts have been largely reduced after the introduction of the so-called "New
Partnership Approach" (NPA) in 1992 between the IAEA and Euratom. In a MOX fuel fabrication plant
the continuous presence of inspectors will be replaced by a presence of four to five days a
month.
15 In the EU, the IAEA becomes more and more dependent on
information from Euratom inspectors. To achieve as much cost savings as possible, duplication of
inspection is stopped: formerly both Euratom and IAEA inspected nuclear facilities, at present
there is only one of them, mostly Euratom.
Table 6.1 Significant quantities and timelines goals16
| Category |
Type |
Significant quantities |
Timelines goals |
| Direct-use material |
Plutonium* |
8 kg |
1 month |
| High-enriched Uranium |
25 kg U-235 |
1 month (fresh)
3 months (spent) |
| Pu in spent fuel |
8 kg |
3 months |
| Uranium-233 |
8 kg |
1 month |
| Indirect-use material |
Low-enriched Uranium** |
75 kg U-235 |
12 months |
| Thorium |
20 ton |
12 months |
*
For Pu containing less than 80% Pu-238
**
less than 20% U-235, includes natural and depleted uranium
The result of the threefold reduction of expenditures per SQ is that the objective of safeguards
is in serious danger. The main objective of safeguards by the IAEA is the "timely detection of
diversion of significant quantities of nuclear materials from peaceful activities to the
manufacture of nuclear weapons".17 Both the timely detection goals and
the diversion of SQ in largescale reprocessing and MOX fuel plants can no longer be attained.18 Another reason for the shortcoming of the present safeguard system is
the fact that both civil and military nuclear materials and facilities in the Nuclear Weapon States
are not covered by the IAEA safeguards. For example, in 1992 only 28% of the world's plutonium
inventory and less than 1% of the world stock of High Enriched Uranium is under IAEA safeguards.19 The IAEA safeguards less than 25% of all plutonium. The same situation
applies to High Enriched Uranium.
Proliferation dangers will increase when the stockpiles of weapon-plutonium in the US and Russia
will be used as MOX fuel for commercial reactors, as is being planned: the IAEA has no right to
inspect the facilities and sites where the weapon-plutonium is handled or stored. Given the bad
state of security and control in Russia, such a future must arouse apprehension. During the
storage, handling and transport of especially the separated plutonium, the risks of hijacking and
stealing are real. The plutonium present in MOX fuel can be quite easily separated and used for
producing nuclear bombs.
Never before have such large quantities of plutonium been stored, handled and transported. The
largescale reprocessing and recycling of plutonium will have the effect of normalizing the use of
plutonium. Each country can start a plutonium program now and simply justify this by pointing to
the others. This effect is seen clearly already by the neighbors of Japan: The two Koreas, China,
Taiwan. They fear that the massive Japanese plutonium program has a latent proliferation
background. They feel they are being forced to start and own a plutonium program. Especially if the
US decides to realize their present plans for the use of plutonium in commercial reactors, the
White House may find it is impossible to convince other countries not to use plutonium in their
reactors. The real plutonium society has arrived.
Light Water Reactors are designed to use low-enriched uranium fuel. Reactors need to be adapted to
use MOX. There are specific problems concerning the safe operation of MOX facilities and reactors
using MOX. Accidents will have more impact due to more actinides.
MOX fuel contains, next to depleted uranium, 4-8% of plutonium. This is called first generation
plutonium because it has been reprocessed only once. The plutonium inside spent MOX fuel is called
second generation.
20 The concentration of plutonium in MOX fuel must
increase to 8-10% plutonium in the future, to be equivalent to 3.5% enriched uranium. This is
because the present high burn-up spent fuel (which reprocessed plutonium will be used for MOX)
contains degraded plutonium. This means the plutonium contains less fissile Pu-239 and Pu-241 and
more non-fissile isotopes: Pu-240 and Pu-242. The higher the share of non-fissile Pu-isotopes, the
less it is suitable for the production of electricity.
Another problem will be the presence of Americium-241 (Am-241), which is a decay product of
plutonium-241. Because of the relatively short half-life of Pu-241 (13.2 years), the amount of
Am-241 quickly increases. The presence of Am-241 in plutonium makes it even more dangerous and less
efficacious. Am-241 is a hard alpha and gamma emitter. Therefore, in the fabrication of MOX fuel,
the amount of Am-241 must be as low as possible. The plutonium which is used for MOX fabrication
must not be older than three years, because of this americium increase. Separated plutonium older
than three years must first be "recleaned", that is, reprocessed to separate the Am from the
plutonium before it can be used. This is a very expansive operation.
21
The Belgian PO MOX fuel plant can work with plutonium containing up to 1.7% of americium-241 on
average, the French Cadarache MOX fuel plant is limited to 1%.
22 The
newer Melox plant is licensed to use up to 3% Am-241.
23 MOX fuel must
be used quickly. After five months, the fuel has lost 3% of its durability.
24
Recently, a new problem was discovered in connection with the presence of gallium in Russian and US
weapon-grade plutonium. The gallium has to be removed from the plutonium before MOX fuel is
fabricated.
25 Gallium causes problems during the production of MOX
fuel, the use in reactors and the disposal of spent MOX fuel. The gallium attacks the zirconium,
present in the fuel rods, and so deteriorates the fuel rods. This leads to migration of fission
products in the spent fuel and to serious waste disposal problems.
26
Workers in a MOX fuel fabrication plant must be protected against the much higher radiation levels
of MOX. A $40-million investment program is planned for the Dessel PO MOX plant. This is necessary
to allow the plant to respect the new, more severe, worker- exposure limits of ICRP-60, to be
passed into Belgian law by 2000, despite the anticipated degradation in the quality of the
separated plutonium. This means among others further automation and the massive introduction of
neutron shielding in the workshops.
27
The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), which cannot be said to be very
critical on nuclear energy, sets a standard for occupational exposure to radiation at 100 mSv over
five years, with a maximum of 50 mSv in any one year. If you interpret this by comparing workers in
a uranium fuel fabrication plant with workers om a MOX fuel fabrication plant, the standards for
protection against inhalation are roughly two million times stricter in plutonium processing than
in uranium processing.
28
Accidents at MOX fuel fabrication plants have occurred. In June 1991, the storage bunker of the MOX
fuel fabrication plant in Hanau, Germany, was contaminated with MOX. It occurred after the rupture
of a foil for container packaging in the course of an in-plant transportation process. Four workers
were exposed to plutonium.
29 This accident was the main reason the
fabrication plant at Hanau was shut down.
In November 1992, a fuel rod was broken through a handling error, and MOX dust was released
during the mounting of MOX fuel rods to fuel assemblies in the fuel fabrication facility adjoining
the MOX facility in Dessel, Belgium. In the event of such accidents, if the ICRP recommendations
for general public exposure were adhered to, only about one mg of plutonium may be released from a
MOX facility to the environment. As a comparison, in uranium fabrication facility, 2kg
(2,000,000mg) of uranium could be released in the same radiation exposure. A one mg release of
plutonium can easily happen during various smaller incidents.30
All Light Water Reactors are designed to use uranium fuel. Therefore MOX fuel assemblies should be
comparable to the operation of uranium assemblies with the same kind of performance. In order to
use another fuel such as MOX, the reactor must be adapted. This is done by increasing the number
and the reactivity of the control rods and of the quantity of boron dissolved in the cooling
water.
31 These changes lead to smaller safety margins when the reactor
is switched off and the fuel rods and damaged sooner.
32 The rate of
fission of Pu tends to increase with temperature. This can endanger reactor control. The higher the
share of Pu-239, the greater this problem. With the general introduction of higher burn-up fuels,
the drive is also to use more plutonium in the MOX fuel.
Utilities want to increase the burn-up of MOX fuel to the same level as the uranium fuel. In a
PWR, MOX assemblies with three different concentrations of plutonium are inserted. The Nuclear
Energy Agency (NEA) gives as example a core with three sorts of MOX fuel rods: with 8.7%, with 7%
and with 4.3% plutonium, all in the center of the core.
33 The use of
MOX fuel has several problems. A few are:
- Different enrichment levels of plutonium and uranium lead to peak burn-ups, which cause
weakening of the fuel rods.
- A principal limiting factor for the share of MOX in the core and the percentage of plutonium in
MOX fuel is the substantially higher release of fission gas within MOX fuel rods than in uranium
fuel, which increases sharply with burn-up.
- MOX fuel is "hotter" than uranium fuel at equivalent power.
- High local burn-up, sometimes more than three times average burn-up, due to the heterogeneous
microstructure of MOX fuel, which yields clumps with high plutonium concentration.34
- The higher energy of the neutron spectrum of MOX increases the rate of radiation damage to the
core structures. This could cause the reactor vessel to become brittle in the end, which is another
factor for safety concerns.35
For these reasons French nuclear safety authorities for instance continue to deny EdF a license for
higher burn-up of MOX fuel. The burn-up of MOX in France is now limited to 36 MWD/kg. EdF wants a
license to increase the MOX fuel burn-up to 52 MWD/kg.
36 As we have
seen in
Chapter 5.2.2. higher burn-up also has negative safety
aspects; an important one is fuel rods' deformation which results in sticking of the control rods.
During an experiment with MOX fuel on January 24, 1997, in the Cabri research reactor at Cadarache,
an unexpectedly violent rupture of the MOX fuel clad occurred, leading to dispersal of fuel
fragments in the test channel. If this rupture were caused by the MOX fuel, it would be bad news
for utilities wanting to use MOX fuel and for MOX fuel fabricators. One more MOX fuel test with a
two-cycle MOX fuel pin is scheduled this year. However, only when and if the Cabri reactor is
refitted with a water loop (it now has a sodium coolant loop) it will be able to represent LWR
conditions. A decision is expected in June 1997. Utilities and regulators will be left with at
least two years of uncertainty over the significance of the Cabri MOX fuel failure. The deputy
director Rousseau of the French regulatory organization DSIN said that the latest test result
"isn't going to encourage us to go faster" in licensing high burn-up MOX fuel. EdF has to wait
several years before it is allowed to increase the burn-up of its MOX fuel.
37
Accidents involving overheating and meltdown are possible in any nuclear reactor. In such
accidents, not only would readily volatile noble gases like iodine and caesium be released to the
environment, but a small portion of the actinides, including plutonium and neptunium, would be
released. As the activity of the actinides is substantially higher in the case of MOX, the
consequences of such severe accidents become more serious.
When MOX fuels are used, the probability of having such serious accidents or trouble would
increase due to the high content of plutonium in the fuel. Even if an accident is not a serious
one, it could become serious since even a small portion of the inventory of actinides released to
the environment could cause significant radiological consequences. According to a comparative
analysis of possible consequences of a core meltdown accident in the German Kruemmel nuclear power
plant with and without the use of MOX fuel.
38
- The radiation exposure from inhalation of radioactive materials during the passage of the
radioactive cloud is higher by several dozen percentages than if U fuel elements were exclusively
used.
- Radiation exposure through the route of inhalation of remobilized long-lived actinide isotopes
is more than doubled.
- The land areas to become out of use by long-term contamination increases as the re-suspension
pathway is a limiting factor and the greater part of the dose resulting from the pathway comes from
the actinides.
The consequence of more and more reactors using MOX is an increasing number of dangerous transports
with highly radioactive plutonium by road, rail, air or sea.
Compared to the once-through option, where the spent fuel is stored at the reactor or at a central
storage, with MOX there is a fourfold increase of plutonium transports. The increase in distances
covered is far more: since there are only a few reprocessing plants worldwide and clients the whole
world over. For instance: Spent fuel sent by sea from Japan to French and English reprocessing
plants; from there to MOX plants in Dessel, Melox or CfCa in Cadarache, or to MDF in Sellafield;
finally the shipment of thousands of kg of plutonium the whole way back.
In 1984 190 kg of plutonium was transported by sea from France to Japan; in November 1992 a
second transport of 1,700 kg of plutonium took place, which was heavily criticized, escorted by an
armed vessel and watched from a satellite. Many countries along the route refused to allow these to
pass by in their coastal waters.39 From 1994 till 2010, about 30,000
kg of plutonium will be transported from Europe to Japan.40 Around the
year 2000, the number of MOX transports in France will be more than 400, with more than 40,000 kg
of plutonium.41
Most nuclear countries have transport regulations, based upon several publications of the IAEA;
basic "Safety standards" in the "Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive
Material", (Safety Series No. 6); "Safety Guides; Schedules of Requirements for Transport of
Specified Types of Radioactive Material Consignment", (Safety Series No. 80). The shipments of
radioactive materials, whether they are private or government-owned, must be packaged and carried
according to these regulations. Containers have to fulfill requirements and to withstand accidents
and radiation and proliferation risks. Packages are divided into four categories:
- Industrial packages for nuclear materials with lower specific activity, such as uranium,
thorium and slightly enriched uranium hexafluoride;
- Type A containers, for medium radioactive materials: fresh fuel, uranium oxide;
- Type B packages for higher radioactive materials: spent fuel, separated plutonium, high level
reprocessing wastes.
- A new container, Type C, which has to withstand air crash accidents, still has to be
developed.
The test conditions for the four categories differ strongly. Type A containers must meet special
tests to ensure they would withstand normal transport conditions, for example to withstand an
impact of only 13 meters/sec.
42 Any radioactive material shipment that
exceeds the limit of Type A package specifications must be shipped in a Type B package. Only the
conditions for Type B containers claim to guarantee their integrity after an accident. They must
withstand both normal shipping conditions and hypothetical accidents without a breach in the
containment. Type B containers are subjected to four tests: Impact Test, Crush Test, Thermal Test
and Water Immersion Test.
43
On September 10, 1996, the IAEA adopted revised standards for the transport of radioactive
material at the Board Meeting held in Vienna. They will go into effect by the year 2000. The
revision allows the continuous use of existing Type B casks for plutonium and MOX shipments,
provided transporters can demonstrate that radionuclides will not be dispersed (so-called
Low-Dispersable Materials, LDM) following a severe accident that ruptures the container. Type B
containers are designed to survive a crash speed of 48 km/h and a 30-minute fire of 800 degrees
Celsius, but B-containers have not been tested in a plane crash. In 1992 an El Al plane crashed in
Amsterdam at 520 km/h and burned intensely for hours. The standards also create a new container
category, Type C, which is stronger and could be used for shipping materials which are not LDM. An
exemption, however, is made for shipping MOX fuel, which is LDM, in Type C containers. Strong
oppposition came from Greenpeace International and the Nuclear Control Institute (NCI). They will
campaign to prevent the new IAEA standards from being accepted by the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) and the influential International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Opponents
assert that the plutonium industry pressed for the LDM exemption for MOX, because shipment in Type
C containers would increase the cost of MOX transport. The US will not allow plutonium flights in
US airspace because neither Type B nor Type C containers meet US standards. The new Type C
container is not yet ready; testing involves a mere 90 mile/hour impact. A crashing airplane could
have a higher speed.
The US plutonium air transport standards require a cask to survive a "maximum credible accident",
with impact speeds of 180 meter/second, twice the IAEA Type C standard. Cogema's Ricaud said that a
cask meeting the US standards would be "much more costly" than a Type C container, but Cogema does
not need plutonium air transport standards. Ricaud did not mention air shipment of MOX to Japan.
44 The Greens in the European Parliament charged that the new
recommendations on stricter safety standards for the transport of nuclear materials do not go far
enough. They asked the European Commission to suspend the transports of MOX fuel until the new
guidelines are reviewed. The US Nuclear Control Institute also asked the EU states to ban the
transport of nuclear material.
45
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