Scraps from the manufacture of MOX
In 1999, about 8% of MELOX’ production consisted
of scraps, at least a part of which is sent to La Hague. However, the
MOX production plant has a recovery workshop for scraps allowing "recycling"
by re-dissolving the defective pellets (MIMAS process, Micronized Master-blend).
It is interesting to note that the other MOX production plant in France,
Cadarache, with a declared capacity of 35 tHM/year (completely surpassed
in 1999 with a production of 45.6 tons of oxides, or 40.2 tHM), also
has a rejection rate of about 8%. A plant of the CEA, operated since
1991 by COGEMA, the ATPu has been almost entirely devoted since that
year to contracts made with German utilities. In fact, as of 31 December
1999, according to the utility PreussenElektra, 262.6 tons of heavy
metal were still to be delivered to German companies (1),
or 300 tons of oxide, which corresponds to about seven years of production
at a rate of 40 tons of heavy metal (or 45 tons of oxide) per year.
Since the beginning, production of plutonium fuel
in France has had its share of incidents. Particularly notable is the
one classified level 2 on the INES scale, which occurred 28 July 1997,
and which concerned the exceeding of the authorized mass of fissile
material in a storage cell of the Laboratory for the experimental study
and manufacture of advanced nuclear fuels (LEFCA), following a failure
of the system for managing fissile materials. In fact, 170 grams of
plutonium were found after analysis, in a batch supposed to contain
only natural uranium. One should note that the mission of LEFCA is to
manipulate plutonium in order to find applications for it in nuclear
reactors, and that since 1996, the laboratory has undertaken the recovery
and the reconditioning of nuclear materials from manufacturing residues.
If it is possible to lose track of tens of grams of plutonium in a laboratory
handling only small quantities of fuel, what about the MELOX manufacturing
lines, which in 1999 handled 115 tons of MOX (0.6 tons more than in
1998), or close to 8.2 tons (up by 1.6 tons) of plutonium? The average
content of plutonium in MOX is increasing, for, since February 1999,
EDF is authorized to load MOX with 7.08% of plutonium compared to 5.3%
before.
(1) Plutonium Workshop, Jan.13-14, 2000. Julich,
Germany
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