Britain-Japan talks over MOX fuel

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

Britain-Japan talks over MOX fuel

LONDON, June 13 (Kyodo) - Japanese and British officials have held 
informal talks on the fate of a tainted consignment of plutonium fuel 
shipped from Britain and currently stored in Japan, the British 
government said Tuesday. 

Junior Japanese and British government officials are believed to have 
met this week in order to pave the way for higher-level discussions 
on what to do with the mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel (MOX), 
which has been sitting at the No. 4 reactor in Takahama, Fukui 
Prefecture since it was delivered from Britain in September last 
year. 

The Japanese government and Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO), 
operator of the Takahama nuclear plant, want the fuel returned to 
Britain after it was found that workers at the manufacturers British 
Nuclear Fuels PLC (BNFL) falsified quality assurance data on the 
fuel. 

A delegation of top-level officials from the Department of Trade and 
Industry is expected to fly to Japan later this summer to present a 
range of options on what to do with the tainted fuel. 

The Japanese government has made it clear to London and BNFL that it 
will not allow any more imports of nuclear fuel from Britain until 
the situation is resolved. 

The options presented will include returning the fuel to Britain and 
possibly recovering some of the fuel so that it could be used again, 
or looking at ways of treating the fuel and storing it in Japan. 

A DTI spokesman told Kyodo News: ''Informal talks have taken place 
between junior British and Japanese officials in Japan. They are 
paving the way for the visit of the formal delegation, for which a 
date has not yet been set. 

''They have made a small amount of progress and we are encouraged by 
this.'' 

According to an authoritative source, talks started Monday and were 
continuing. 

Revelations came to light in September last year that quality control 
data on a consignment of MOX fuel intended for use in the Takahama 
No. 3 reactor had been faked by process workers at BNFL's Sellafield 
plant in Cumbria, northwest England. The fuel was waiting to be 
shipped to Japan at the time of the disclosure. 

In December, there was more embarrassment for BNFL when it was 
revealed that data on a consignment already in Takahama had also been 
faked. 

In all, Britain's nuclear safety watchdog, the Nuclear Installations 
Inspectorate found that data relating to 31 batches of fuel for Japan 
had been faked. 

However, it concluded that the MOX would have been safe to use. The 
NII said the all the fuel had gone through automated checks and any 
irregular MOX pellets would have been identified. 

The manual checks, when the falsification took place, was merely for 
quality assurances purposes, the inspectorate said. 

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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 	                   		    
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