KEPCO to return MOX fuel to Britain

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Another credibility issue that our industry does not now need!

KEPCO to return MOX fuel to Britain

FUKUI, Japan, Jan. 11 (Kyodo) - Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) 
said Tuesday it will return the plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) 
fuel supplied from Britain to its British manufacturer which has 
admitted the fuel contained falsified quality control data. 

KEPCO did not elaborate on when the fuel, which is currently stored 
at its Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, would be 
shipped back to Britain. 

The MOX fuel, which was intended for the No. 4 reactor at KEPCO's 
Takahama plant, arrived in Takahama from Britain on Oct. 1. 

Two months later, on Dec. 16, it was reported that quality control 
checks conducted by the maker, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. (BNFL), had 
been falsified. 

It was the second time BNFL falsified data on MOX fuel intended for 
Takahama, following the incident in September when it discovered data 
was falsified on MOX fuel bound for the No. 3 reactor there. 

On Tuesday, KEPCO revealed it was notified last October by BNFL of 
the suspected falsification of data on the fuel for the No. 4 reactor 
but did not report it to the Ministry of International Trade and 
Industry. 

Earlier Tuesday, the ministry gave KEPCO a strong warning over the 
failure in reporting, company officials said. 

KEPCO set up an in-house investigation panel to work out preventive 
measures against the falsification of data, including reanalyzing 
fuel data, the officials said. 

MOX fuel is made in Britain and France by mixing uranium with 
plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel. 

The falsification of data on MOX fuel for the Takahama and other 
plants has postponed Japan's first ''pluthermal'' program, in which 
pellets of MOX fuel are burnt inside light-water reactors to generate 
heat for producing electricity. 

The Japanese government okayed the MOX plan in February 1997 as a 
stopgap measure to utilize the country's plutonium stockpile, after a 
1995 accident at the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui 
effectively stalled a plan to establish a nuclear fuel cycle.

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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/scperle
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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