MOX fuel, a mixture of weapon-grade plutonium and natural or depleted
uranium, may be used to deplete a portion of the world's surplus of
weapon-grade plutonium. A number of reactors currently operate in Europe
with one-third MOX cores, and others are scheduled to begin using MOX
fuels in both Europe and Japan in the near future. While Russia has
laboratory-scale MOX fabrication facilities, the technology remains
under study. No fuels containing plutonium are used in the U.S.
The 25 presentations in this book give an impressive overview of MOX
technology. The following issues are covered: an up to date report on
the disposition of ex-weapons Pu in Russia; an analysis of safety
features of MOX fuel configurations of different reactor concepts and
their operating and control measures; an exchange of information on the
status of MOX utilisation in existing power plants, the fabrication
technology of various MOX fuels and their behaviour in practice; a
discussion of the typical national approaches by Russia and the western
countries to the utilisation of Pu as MOX fuel; an introduction to new
ideas, enhancing the disposition option of MOX fuel exploitation and
destruction in existing and future advanced reactor systems; and the
identification of common research areas where defined tasks can be
initiated in cooperative partnership.