The Orano group has signed two mixed oxide (MOX) fuel manufacturing contracts with the Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for a total of 64 MOX fuel assemblies. Orano will supply 40 MOX assemblies for unit 3 of Kyushu Electric Power Company’s Genkai NPP, and assemblies for unit 3 of Shikoku Electric Power Company’s NPP.

Fabrication of the assemblies will take place at the Orano Melox plant at Chusclan in France. MOX is produced by recycling recoverable materials contained in used fuel. To date, 44 reactors worldwide have operated using MOX fuel since 1972.

“These new contracts strengthen our longstanding relationship with MHI and utility customers in Japan,” said Corinne Spilios, Senior Executive Vice President of Orano’s Recycling Business Unit. “This choice underlines the relevance of recycling for our customers as a responsible and sustainable solution for managing their used fuel.”

MHI has received orders from Shikoku Electric and Kyushu Electric for the assemblies. Under this contract, MHI will undertake design of MOX fuel. Components such as cladding tubes manufactured by Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co will be provided to Orano, who will then fabricate the assemblies. MHI has previously supplied 57 MOX fuel assemblies to Japanese utilities.

Also in November Orano and its Japanese partners signed several contracts to return all waste to Japan still stored at the Orano La Hague plant. In accordance with the terms of the contracts, the equivalent in mass and radioactivity of this waste contained in the used fuel elements must be returned to Japan. From 1981 to 1999, contracts for the reprocessing of used fuel were signed with ten Japanese utilities. These contracts resulted in the recycling of fuel elements from Japan nuclear reactors and in the conditioning of the residual waste. Under the contracts, 2,793 tonnes of fuel were processed at the La Hague plant. Almost 97% of the total radioactivity has already been returned.