The recovered plutonium will be fabricated into MOX fuel at MOX fabrication plants in Europe. These plants have already been supplying European utilities with MOX fuel for a number of years. The completed MOX fuel assemblies will then be transported back to the Japanese utility companies' reactors.

PLUTONIUM'S ROLE IN GENERATING ELECTRICITY

MOX FUEL

Fuel consisting of a mixture of uranium and plutonium oxides is referred to as a MOX fuel. Uranium fuel consists of enriched uranium in which the concentration of uranium 235 — the combustible element in natural uranium — is artificially increased. In MOX fuel, by contrast, anything from four to nine percent plutonium is used in place of enriched uranium to mix with natural uranium or with the uranium that is left after enrichment (i.e., depleted uranium).

A commercial reprocessing plant is being constructed in northern Japan by Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited, a company owned in large part by Japan's electric power companies. It is scheduled to begin operation in 2005, with a designed capacity of 800 tons uranium per year. Plutonium recovered at the domestic reprocessing plant will be fabricated into MOX fuel assemblies in Japan. There is a plan to construct a domestic MOX fabrication plant with an annual capacity of approximately 100 tons heavy metal per year.

On February 4, 1997, the Japanese Government's Cabinet Consent stated that it was necessary for Japan to promptly start utilizing MOX fuel in its LWRs. Later that month, the Japanese electric power companies outlined their plans to begin MOX utilization in three to four reactors by 2000, and to increase its use in more than 10 reactors by 2010.

Already the two largest Japanese electric utilities are making rapid progress towards MOX fuel utilization. Kansai Electric Power Company has been completing the many necessary steps prior to utilizing MOX fuel at its Takahama 4 reactor, and the company appears to be on track to commence loading MOX fuel in 1999. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is also proceeding with its MOX utilization program. TEPCO intends to start using MOX fuel at its Fukushima I-3 reactor in 1999.