April 11, 1997

THE MOX MYTH

The dangers and risks of the use of mixed oxide fuel

Written by: Loeke Pam, Joop Boer and Dirk Bannink
Editor: Dirk Bannink
Layout: Christof Meigen
Thanks to: Robert Jan van den Berg, Hermine Linnebank, Peer de Rijk, Yurika Ayukawa and Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Special thanks to Stichting Vredesprojecten Nederland and The Margaret Laurence Fund for the Promotion of Peace and the Environment - Canada for providing funds for the production of this issue.

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contents

1. Introduction
2. History of plutonium policy and production
   1. Introduction
   2. Plutonium grades: All Pu is weapon-grade
   3. Pu production
      1. Civil Pu production
      2. Military Pu production
3. MOX policy and plans
   1. Fast Breeder Reactors
   2. MOX fuel production
   3. MOX use
4. Country overview
   1. Belgium
   2. Canada
   3. European Union
   4. France
   5. Germany
   6. India
   7. Japan
   8. Netherlands
   9. Russia
   10. Switzerland
   11. United Kingdom
   12. United States
5. The MOX myths
   1. Reduction of Pu stocks?
   2. It saves uranium?
      1. Lower tails assay
      2. Higher burn-up
   3. MOX saves storage costs?
   4. MOX fuel costs
6. Proliferation and safety problems of MOX use
   1. Proliferation
      1. No inspection in Nuclear Weapons States
      2. Material unaccounted for
      3. More nuclear material; less safeguards
   2. Safety
      1. Pu degradation and Americanum-241
      2. Gallium
      3. Worker hazards
      4. Accidents at MOX fabrication plants
      5. Behavior of MOX fuel in the reactor
      6. Accident scenario when burning MOX
      7. Pu transport problems
7. Summary

List of Tables:

• 2.2 - Plutonium grades
• 2.3 - Estimated civil world Pu production
• 3.1 - Present Fast Breeder Reactors
• 3.2 - Current & planned large scale LWR MOX fabrication plants
• 3.3 - Reactors with MOX-fuel (as of 31December 1996)
• 5.1 - Pu balance in PWR with 30% MOX fuel in core
• 6.1 - Significant quantities and timelines goals