MOX Packaging: Experience and Development

Abstract

In the back-end of the fuel cycle, several leading countries have chosen the Reprocessing, Conditioning, Recycling (RCR) option. Plutonium recycling in the form of MOX fuel is a mature industry, with successful operational experience and large scale fabrication plants in several European countries. The COGEMA Group has developed the industrialised products to master the RCR operation including transport. The COGEMA subsidiary, Transnucléaire, has been operating MOX fuel transports on an industrial scale for more than 10 years. These transports have been carried out by road between various facilities in Europe: reprocessing plants, manufacturing plants and power plants. Because MOX fuel transport is subject to specific safety, security and fuel integrity requirements, the MOX fuel transport system implemented by Transnucléaire is fully dedicated. Packagings. have been developed, licensed and manufactured in compliance with relevant regulations. A fleet of vehicles qualified according to existing physical protection regulations is operated by Transnucléaire. Further developments are under way to increase the payload of the packagings and to improve the transport conditions. Safety and security remain, of course, top priority.