New AREVA has been awarded a contract by Nuclear Fuel Industries (NFI) to fabricate 32 mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies for use in Japan's Takahama 3&4, operated by Kansai Electric Company.
The supply of MOX fuel assemblies follows agreements signed with Japanese utilities from 1975 onwards for the treatment of up to 3000t of used fuel at France's la Hague site.
The four-unit Takahama nuclear power plant is located in Fukui Prefecture on the southwest coast of Japan, 350km from Tokyo.
Takahama 3&4 – two of the five Japanese reactors currently in operation – are both 830MWe (net) pressurised water reactors. Takahama 4 was restarted in May 2017, and Takahama 3 resumed operation in June 2017.
In July, a MOX convoy sailed from Cherbourg, France for Japan to supply the plant. The fuel will be used in Takahama 4 next year.
AREVA said that to date 44 reactors have generated electricity from MOX fuel: 38 in Europe, 5 in Japan, and 1 in the USA.
