A U.S.-Russian joint task force report says Russia’s plan to covert weapon-grade plutonium into mixed-oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel is more complex than a similar U.S. plan created under a U.S.-Russian nonproliferation agreement, Energy Daily reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 24).

The January report, created by the Joint U.S.-Russian Working Group on Cost Analysis and Economics in Plutonium Disposition, outlines Russia’s initial plans for its MOX program.

Under the plan, estimated to cost at least $1.7 billion, Russia would construct two plants for converting plutonium from weapons into material suitable for later processing, the report says.  One plant would be a demonstration-scale facility while the second would be an industrial-scale plant built at Mayak, a site in the Southern Urals.

Russia also plans to build three MOX production plants, the report says.  Two of the production plants would be small-scale facilities to create MOX fuel for the initial stages of the program.  A third, industrial-scale MOX production plant — to be built in Krasnoyarsk in central Siberia — would be brought on later on in the program, the report says.

Three types of Russian nuclear reactors would use prepared MOX fuel, according to the report:  a BN-600 fast reactor, a BOR-60 experimental fast reactor and four VVER-1000 reactors.  The VVER-1000 is the main type of reactor used at Russian nuclear power facilities, according to Energy Daily.  MOX fuel could also possibly be used later at two VVER-1000 reactors at the Kalinin nuclear power plant, the report says.

All of the Russian reactors that would use MOX fuel would have to be modified and relicensed, according to the report.  New gas-cooled reactors could also be constructed, but at high cost, the report says.

The Russian MOX plan examines storage of spent MOX fuel to be conducted in two stages — short-term “wet” storage at reactor sites and a long-term “dry” storage at the Krasnoyarsk facility, according to the report.  The plan also examines transportation of plutonium from conversion to production sites, as well as MOX fuel shipments to reactor sites and spent fuel shipments to the long-term storage facility, the report says.

Speeding Up the Process

The report also examines Russia’s potential options for accelerating the plutonium disposal plan to four metric tons per year, up from two metric tons, Energy Daily reported.

By speeding up the initial plan, the program would be shortened by five years at a minimal cost increase, converting by 2020 all 34 metric tons of plutonium slated for disposal, the report says.  The cost increases, however, would have to be paid at the start of the program, according to Energy Daily.

The accelerated scenario calls for increasing the amount of plutonium to be converted into MOX fuel at each production plant and to use MOX fuel at the start of the program at another three VVER-1000 reactors, including the two at Kalinin, the report says.

Another potential option would be shipping two metric tons of MOX fuel to non-Russian nuclear reactors and using two metric tons in Russian reactors, according to the report.  In order to do so, Russia would have to produce MOX fuel that could be used in pressurized water and boiling water nuclear reactors used by other countries, in addition to fuel that could be used by Russian reactors, according to the report.  The export scenario fuel is estimated to cost more than $2 billion over the initial plan but would reduce the end date for the program to 2019, the report says (George Lobsenz, Energy Daily, May 15).

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