Having been granted government approval for the use of mixed uranium and plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel in reactors, Japan’s Chubu Electric Power has announced that it plans to start using the fuel at its Hamaoka station from 2010.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) granted approval for three of Japan’s utilities to use MOX at five reactors initially and by 2011 the industry aims to use it at some 16-18 reactors.
The Hamaoka station is located in Omaezaki in Shizuoka prefecture of central Japan. The station houses five reactors with a combined capacity of 5GWe. Unit 4 of the Hamaoka plant will be used and 48 MOX fuel rods will be loaded during the periodic inspection scheduled in 2010.
The company plans to gradually increase MOX use to one-third of the total of 764 fuel rods.
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