What is MOX process?
Mixed oxide (MOX) fuel provides almost 5% of the new nuclear fuel used today and fuels about 10% of France’s fleet. MOX fuel is manufactured from plutonium recovered from used reactor fuel, mixed with depleted uranium.
What is a MOX reactor?
A type of nuclear reactor fuel (often called “MOX”) that contains plutonium oxide mixed with either natural or depleted uranium oxide, in ceramic pellet form. Using plutonium reduces the amount of highly enriched uranium needed to produce a controlled reaction in commercial light-water reactors.
What happens when you mix uranium and plutonium?
Once separated, plutonium oxide can be mixed with uranium oxide to produce mixed oxide or MOX fuel. MOX fuel can be used in power reactors. Reprocessing is controversial internationally, because the plutonium can also be used to make nuclear weapons.
Where is MOX used?
MOX fuel has been fabricated for many years in Europe. It is produced in the United Kingdom and France today. These countries use plutonium separated from commercial spent fuel to make MOX fuel. Commercial MOX-fueled light water reactors are used in France, the U.K., Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.
What does the name MOX mean?
Dutch: metronymic or patronymic from Mock 3; Walloon: nickname from Walloon moxhe ‘fly’ (Old French mosche, Latin musca), denoting an annoying, importunate person; habitational name from Moxhe in the province of Liège.
How do you make MOX fuel?
MOX fuel can be made by grinding together uranium oxide (UO2) and plutonium oxide (PuO2) before the mixed oxide is pressed into pellets, but this process has the disadvantage of forming much radioactive dust.
What is the difference between a breeder reactor and a regular reactor?
breeder reactor, nuclear reactor that produces more fissionable material than it consumes to generate energy. This special type of reactor is designed to extend the nuclear fuel supply for electric power generation. Conventional reactors, in contrast, can extract less than one percent of its energy.
What is the dictionary definition of sequestration?
English Language Learners Definition of sequestration US : the act of keeping a person or group apart from other people or the state of being kept apart from other people chiefly British, law : the act of taking someone’s property until a debt has been paid See the full definition for sequestration in the English Language Learners Dictionary
When was MOX fuel first used in nuclear reactors?
MOX fuel was first used in a thermal reactor in 1963, but did not come into commercial use until the 1980s. So far more than 2000 tonnes of MOX fuel has been fabricated and loaded into power reactors. In 2006 about 180 tonnes of MOX fuel was loaded into over 30 reactors (mostly PWR) in Europe.
What’s the difference between MOX and uranium oxide fuel?
Burn-up of MOX fuel is about the same as that for uranium oxide fuel. An advantage of MOX is that the fissile concentration of the fuel and hence burn-up can be increased easily by adding a bit more plutonium, whereas enriching uranium to higher levels of U-235 is relatively expensive.
Who was not allowed to speak to reporters during sequestration?
— Tom Rickey the sequestration of a jury During their sequestration, jurors were not allowed to speak to reporters.