MOX Shipments To Japan
MOX shipments to Japan as of 6.8.2011
Questions arose about the total MOX inventory at Fukushima. With that concern we have attempted to document all shipments of MOX to Japan along with the location and use of all assemblies. This is an ongoing project that will update as we find more information to assure all MOX shipments have been counted and the confirmation of the location and use of all inventory. Big thanks to Elaine and Smoss for their research on this project!
Date: 7/1999
Ship: Pacific Pintail
Leaving Facility: BNFL – Cumbria
Ending Facility: ?
Designated Reactor: Takahama-4
Power Company: Kansai
Number of Assemblies: 8 MOX assemblies, with 255kg of plutonium
Installed in Reactor: N
Documentation: Source 1 Source 2 Source 3 Source 4
Notes: BNFL falsified records, Kansai returned rods to BNFL, British produced MOX. Fuel was stored in SFP for 4 years before being returned to UK. Fuel suffered 15% degradation to americum during the 4 years in SFP. Kansai Electric had rejected one-quarter of the fuel that had been manufactured for use in its Takahama-3 and -4 reactors.
Date: 1999
Ship: Pacific Teal
Leaving Facility: Cherbourg
Ending Facility: Fukushima I (dock at NPP)
Designated Reactor: Fukushima-1-3
Power Company: TEPCO
Number of Assemblies: 32 assemblies – 225kg of plutonium plus several tons of uranium
Installed in Reactor: Yes Sept 2010 installation
Documentation: Source 1 Source 2 Source 3
Notes: Researcher warned in 2000 that the MOX sent to FUKU was also faulty and would result in catastrophic failure. According to the PDF, TEPCO used the 10 year old MOX in unit 3. What does 10 years in a SFP do to fuel?
Date: 12/2000
Ship: Pacific Swan
Leaving Facility: Cogema/Belgonucleaire
Ending Facility: Kashiwazaki docks at NPP
Designated Reactor: Kashiwazaki-kariwa-3
Power Company: TEPCO
Number of Assemblies: 220kg of plutonium, 28 assemblies
Installed in Reactor: No
Documentation: Source 1 Source 2 Source 3
Notes: Local vote banned installation of Mox at Kashiwazaki. Fuel still sitting in a SFP at Kashiwazaki according to the PDF. There are questions if this fuel could have been moved to Fukushima. Research into this continues.
Date: 2/2009
Ship: Pacific Pintail & Pacific Heron
Leaving Facility: Cherbourg – MELOX
Ending Facility: 1.Omaezaki port, Shizuoka Prefecture 180 km from Tokyo., 2. Genkai Unit 3 plant in Saga Prefecture, 3. Shikoku Electric’s Ikata Unit 3 in Ehime Prefecture
Designated Reactor: Kyusu Electric- Genkai, Shikoku Electric- Ikata Unit 3, Chubu Electric – Hamaoka Unit 4
Power Company: Kyusu,Shikoku, Chubu
Number of Assemblies: 65 assemblies – 1800kg plutonium
Installed in Reactor: Genkai = Yes 16 assemblies, Hamaoka unit 4 = 28 assemblies, Ikata = Yes 21 assemblies (Source 4 claims 24 assemblies)
Documentation: Source 1 , Source 2 , Source 3 , Source 4
Notes: Ikata installed 3/2010, Genkai installed 11/2010, Local lawsuit filed in 2010 to stop MOX in Genkai (no info on final court decision yet?)
Chubu Electric, also encountered problems. When Chubu Electric’s 28 MOX fuel assemblies were examined upon arrival at the Hamaoka-4 reactor in Shizuoka Prefecture on 18 May 2009, it was discovered that the metal separators for three fuel assemblies had been dislocated during the shipment. It has not yet been revealed whether these assemblies suffered damage and whether or not they will be loaded into the reactor.
Date: 6.28.2010
Ship: ?
Leaving Facility: Areva
Ending Facility: ?
Designated Reactor: Genkai
Power Company: Kyushu
Number of Assemblies: ?
Installed in Reactor: ?
Documentation: Source 1
Notes:
Date: 6.30.2010
Ship: ?
Leaving Facility: Areva
Ending Facility: ?
Designated Reactor: Takahama – 3
Power Company: Kansai
Number of Assemblies: 8 MOX assemblies
Installed in Reactor: Yes
Documentation: Source 1 , Source 2
Notes:
Date: 4/2011
Ship: ?
Leaving Facility: canceled – leaving France
Ending Facility:
Designated Reactor:
Power Company: Kansai & Chubu
Number of Assemblies:
Installed in Reactor:
Documentation:
Notes: Shipment was canceled due to disasters in Japan
Date: 5/18/2011
Ship: pacific pintail, pacific heron
Leaving Facility: France
Ending Facility:
Designated Reactor:
Power Company:
Number of Assemblies:
Installed in Reactor:
Documentation:
Notes: Canceled? Need documentation
UPDATE: Smoss found some additional data on total plutonium holdings in Japan. Added below to help round out the information on MOX and other plutonium inventories.
INFCIRC documents filed with the IAEA – annual declaration of plutonium holdings
3. Plutonium contained in unirradiated MOX fuel or other
fabricated products at reactor sites or elsewhere.
1996 900 kgPu
1997 800 kgPu
1998 800 kgPu
1999 1200 kgPu
2000 1200 kgPu
2001 1500 kgPu
2002 1100 kgPu
2003 1100 kgPu
2004 1300 kgPu
2005 1500 kgPu (1300 kgPu)
2006 1200 kgPu
2007 1200 kgPu
2008 1300 kgPu
2009 1900 kgPu
2010
***based on the following sources***
***this source used to cross reference http://www.isis-online.org/uploads/isis-reports/documents/INFCIRC_549_Guidelines_Revision_17Sept2010.pdf ***
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/2005/infcirc549a1-8.pdf
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Documents/Infcircs/2010/infcirc549a1-13.pdf
http://www.aec.go.jp/jicst/NC/kokusai/20070918e/1.pdf
http://www.aec.go.jp/jicst/NC/iinkai/teirei/siryo2009/siryo34/090908e.pdf.pdf
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Great work on this Nancy! So is it all accounted for, or where are the iffy areas?
Oh, @all,
Point of interest: COGEMA is now AREVA (re-branded a la Blackwater-to-XE and British Petroleum-to-BP-to-whatnow?).
Iffy areas right now are the location of the 28 assemblies delivered to Kashiwazaki. Last mention in the media was fairly old and claimed they were located in a spent fuel pool at Kashiwazaki. What is unknown is if they are still there or if TEPCO might have moved them to Fukushima at some point. It is also unknown right now if TEPCO could have moved the assemblies without notifying the public. It would make sense to at some point relocate the assemblies to a location you can use them. The two Takahama deliveries are also not fully accounted for. The initial delivery was the one that had safety and paperwork issues. Some accounts vaguely state the first batch was returned. Another source mentions only a percentage of the two Takahama deliveries were returned. The 8 rods from the second shipment have been installed. The total count of the first shipment and how many of those were actually returned to the UK is not fully known. So hopefully this gives some ideas what information to keep an eye out for. There may still be other MOX shipments we do not have record of so if anyone finds one not on the list please post in the comments.
Nancy
Nice you put information out there in a concise manner, but where are your sources?
carabnr
Sources are linked in the text of each shipment. IE: Source 1, Source 2 etc.
Nancy
Nice you put information out there in a concise manner.
carabnr
Smoss and Elaine,
Good job on data collection.
When the page came up for me, it looks at the posts first even though they were below the article. So the MOX fuel that you have data on that may have ended up at Fukushima is old, and would likely have been in SFP #3. Is that right doesn’t the fuel get changed out every 3 months ?