A cargo ship carrying plutonium-uranium mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel produced in France has arrived at Kansai Electric Power's Takahama nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture, informed sources said Monday.
This marks the seventh shipment of MOX fuel to the plant from overseas and the first in about three years. The transported fuel will be used at the plant.
MOX fuel is produced by mixing uranium with plutonium extracted from reprocessed spent nuclear fuel to enable its reuse.
A group company of major French nuclear company Orano produced the MOX fuel delivered to the Takahama plant. The cargo ship departed from the Port of Cherbourg in northwestern France in September.
Generating electricity using MOX fuel at existing power plants is known as pulthermal power generation. This method is a key component of the nuclear fuel cycle promoted by the Japanese government to encourage the reuse of spent nuclear fuel.
While the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan aims to introduce pulthermal power generation at 12 or more reactors in the country by fiscal 2030, only four reactors currently use the method, including the Takahama No. 3 and No. 4 reactors.
As of the end of October, Kansai Electric was using 24 MOX fuel assemblies and owned 60 spent assemblies. The company held some 11.3 metric tons of plutonium domestically and overseas as of the end of 2024.
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