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Duke Energy, the only commercial nuclear power plant operator that had agreed to use mixed oxide fuels to be made at Savannah River Site, has ended its contract to use the material. The U.S. Department of Energy's $4.86 billion MOX facility at SRS, scheduled to open in 2016, is designed to dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus, weapons-grade plutonium by using small amounts to make fuel for commercial reactors. The termination of Duke's contract -- disclosed Feb. 27 in a company financial filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission -- raises questions about the government's ability to find power plants willing to use the fuel, said Tom Clements, the Southeast nuclear campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth.

A federation of Japanese power companies last week reportedly asked member companies to "rethink plans" to power the country's nuclear plants with mixed oxide (MOX) fuel because many plants are unlikely to launch plutonium generation within the next three years, as expected. The Japan Atomic Energy Commission also called for a reexamination of the plan, The Japan Times reported on Friday. The move, initiated by the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC), could affect the nation's future nuclear plans, the newspaper said. Today, 53 reactors provide some 30% of Japan's electricity.

Tennessee Valley Authority, others express interest JACKSON --- The U.S. Energy Department is negotiating with the Tennessee Valley Authority and at least one other potential client to use mixed oxide fuels from a $4.86 billion facility under construction at Savannah River Site. The 600,000-square-foot complex, scheduled to open in 2016, will dispose of 34 metric tons of surplus, weapons-grade plutonium by using small amounts to make fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. Clay Ramsey, the National Nuclear Security Administration's MOX federal project director, said TVA has expressed strong interest in using the fuels in some of its six existing commercial reactors. TVA also has plans to complete a seventh reactor at Watts Bar and has proposed completing two more units at its Bellefonte site in Alabama.

Nuclear fuel raises concern about future GENKAI, Saga Pref. - Before a two-lane access road was built to connect it with other parts of the prefecture, the village of Genkai, nestled in high hills with deep ravines beside the Sea of Japan, was so remote that even locals called it the "Tibet of Saga Prefecture." But this town of 6,600 residents, almost in sight of the spot where the Mongolian invasion fleet was hit by "divine winds" over 700 years ago, ending Khubla Khan's dreams of conquest and adding the word "kamikaze" to the lexicon, may soon be the site of Japan's first commercial use of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel.

Contractors at one of the nation's major nuclear weapons complexes repeatedly used substandard construction materials and components that could've caused a major radioactive spill, a recently completed internal government probe has found. One of the materials used at the Savannah River Site on the South Carolina-Georgia border failed to meet federal safety standards and "could have resulted in a spill of up to 15,000 gallons of high-level radioactive waste," the Energy Department's inspector general found. The inspector general's five-month investigation also found that contractors bought 9,500 tons of substandard steel reinforcing bars for the Savannah River Site near Aiken, S.C. The faulty steel was discovered after a piece of it broke during the construction of a facility to convert spent nuclear weapons-grade plutonium and uranium into mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel for civilian reactors. Replacing 14 tons of substandard rebar -- the steel bars commonly used to reinforce concrete -- that already had been installed cost $680,000 and delayed the completion of the $4.8 billion MOX facility, the investigation found.

The environmental watchdog group, Greenpeace is calling for a halt to plans to ship a load of nuclear fuel through the Pacific. Around two tonnes of reprocessed waste is about to leave France for Japan - the largest such shipment ever. The shipment contains a nuclear fuel known as MOX - a mixture of Plutonium and Uranium. The French nuclear group Areva has confirmed it will be shipping the Plutonium, but will only say possibly through the Pacific.

French navy boats escorted a vessel carrying a major shipment of recycled nuclear fuel as it pulled out of a northern port Thursday to begin its 70-day trip to Japan. The Pacific Heron, a specially adapted ship with a British police team on board to head off possible hijackers, left Cherbourg to deliver the shipment of MOX, a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium, to Japanese power plants. Its departure came despite a request by the environmental group Greenpeace to the UN nuclear watchdog to stop the shipment of "an extremely dangerous and proliferating substance" that is "unsafe and unnecessary."

An armed vessel with a load of recycled nuclear fuel from France arrived amid heavy security Monday at a Japanese port where it was greeted by dozens of protesters. The Pacific Heron -- carrying a British police team to head off possible hijackers on its secretive two-month voyage -- delivered a load of mixed-oxide or MOX fuel, a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium. Several dozen anti-nuclear activists and concerned residents rallied at a pier of the Omaezaki fishing port as the ship docked under heavy police guard and cranes unloaded metal containers of the nuclear fuel.

A VESSEL carrying a major shipment of recycled nuclear fuel is expected to arrive in Japan as soon as Monday after its 70-day trip from France, local media reported. The convoy, which left Cherbourg in March to deliver the MOX fuel - a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium - is expected to arrive in the central port of Omaezaki to unload part of the shipment, Kyodo News reported. The business daily Nikkei in a similar report said that the convoy was due to arrive at the port 'as soon as Monday.' The Pacific Heron, a specially adapted ship with a British police team on board to head off possible hijackers, is then expected to unload fuel at two other ports adjacent to nuclear plants in southwestern Japan, the reports said.

An armed cargo ship carrying recycled nuclear fuel from France reached Japan on Monday. Environmental group Greenpeace says the ship's load of plutonium would be enough to make 225 nuclear weapons. A small group of local residents and anti-nuclear activists protested at the ship's arrival. "Using the mixed oxide, MOX fuel at the nuclear plant here is suicidal," said local activist Yoshika Shiratori in Omoaezaki fishing port on Japan's Pacific coast. "Once a big earthquake hits, there is no doubt this entire bay, the Pacific Ocean and all the seas around Japan would become contaminated," he told the AFP news agency.

LOSSES made by Sellafield's failing SMP (mox fuel) recycling plant have been disclosed to Parliament after to searching questions from Labour MP Michael Meacher, who as environment minister tried to stop the plant from opening in 2001. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which took over ownership from British Nuclear Group in 2005, is resisting calls from opposition MPs for the plant's immediate closure. The Whitehaven News was the first to reveal three months ago that SMP's costs had soared to over a billion pounds but closure would put 1,000 Sellafield jobs at risk. One of the government's options was to build a new plant to help reduce Sellafield's 100-ton plutonium stockpile.

"A setup has been prepared for processing in the United Kingdom to turn spent fuel from nuclear power stations in Japan into uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel. More specifically, on May 13, the ten Japanese electric power companies reached an agreement with the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on the basic framework for consignment of such fuel processing. Of the ten utilities, Chubu Electric Power concluded a processing contract on the same day, but the others want to see whether the processing operations will proceed smoothly before contracting."

A former Aiken resident who worked at the Savannah River Site as a subcontractor on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility has been indicted for fraud. Joseph Ralph Lohre Jr., 46, was charged in a three-count indictment with theft of government funds and two counts of making false statements. The indictment alleges that between March 2006 and May 2008, Lohre falsely claimed eligibility for housing benefits through a program administered by the National Nuclear Security Administration, the federal agency overseeing the MOX project, and that as part of his fraud, he submitted falsified documentation to support a claim that he owned a permanent residence in Fort Mitchell, Ky. At the time, Lohre was working as an engineer contractor at SRS.

A former Aiken resident who worked at the Savannah River Site as a subcontractor on the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility has been indicted for fraud. Joseph Ralph Lohre Jr., 46, was charged in a three-count indictment with theft of government funds and two counts of making false statements. The indictment alleges that between March 2006 and May 2008, Lohre falsely claimed eligibility for housing benefits through a program administered by the National Nuclear Security Administration, the federal agency overseeing the MOX project, and that as part of his fraud, he submitted falsified documentation to support a claim that he owned a permanent residence in Fort Mitchell, Ky. At the time, Lohre was working as an engineer contractor at SRS.

Construction work at a $4.8 billion plant that will convert plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads into fuel safe enough for commercial reactors was given a passing grade Monday by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Work began in 2007 on the 600,000-square-foot Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at Savannah River Site, where 34 metric tons of plutonium will be converted to commercial nuclear reactor fuel over a 20-year period.

Officials have interrupted the multiyear test of converted plutonium fuel at a South Carolina nuclear reactor after the discovery of "excessive growth" in the fuel assemblies, two nuclear watchdog groups said Monday. Advertisement Officials with the two groups said the discovery has implications for other reactors, including Oconee Nuclear Station, where similar types of fuel assemblies using different fuel have produced "the same flaw."

27 May 2008 - The wet storage facility for spent fuel at Goesgen nuclear power plant in Switzerland has been unveiled by Kernkraftwerk Goesgen-Daeniken AG at a ceremony attended by high-ranking representatives of the customer, Areva. The facility is capable of accommodating up to 1008 uranium or mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies. It has already received its first batch of spent fuel and impressively confirmed the merits of its sophisticated design.

AIKEN - The U.S. Energy Department has finalized a $2.7 billion contract with a French company to build a South Carolina plant where weapons-grade plutonium will be converted into commercial reactor fuel, the company announced today. The modified contract allows Shaw Areva MOX Services to complete construction of the facility at the Savannah River nuclear complex near Aiken, said Shaw spokesman Sean Clancy. The facility for converting weapons-grade plutonium into a mixed-oxide fuel to be burned in commercial nuclear power reactors would be the first of its kind in the U.S