You pose some very interesting questions.

Regarding the transparency of the MOX fuel market, it is important to note that there is no MOX fuel market as such. Customers purchase MOX fuel as part of an agreement to recycle their used fuel. MOX fuel is integral to recycling and vice versa. Because MOX fuel is not a standalone product, it is usually not possible to talk about the price for MOX fuel alone.

There are however some exceptions: we will for example sell MOX fuel from the MOX Project that we are building in South Carolina in partnership with the Shaw Group (to recycle nuclear weapons material). In such instances, the prices for MOX fuel are broadly consistent with those for uranium fuel.

It is important to note that AREVA’s recycling business is just that – a business. Our customers choose to recycle their used fuel and reuse it as MOX fuel because this makes sense for them. And we offer these services because they make business sense for us.

We have discussed the benefits of recycling previously on the blog [link], including reducing the volume required in a repository (and hence the disposal cost), creating a much more durable waste form (vitrified glass logs) with no more IAEA safeguard obligations, reducing the need to mine and enrich new uranium. When you include all of these factors, from an economic perspective, recycling is competitive with the once-through fuel cycle and, from the sustainability perspective, we believe it is much better.

As a far as the EROI calculations you requested, we have a team of scientists working on those calculations as we speak …

Thanks,
Jarret

Mary Beth – That is great news. Engineers and technologists can be good communicators – they just have to want to develop that skill set. I just hope they recognize that words and web sites do not have to be perfect – timeliness is also important measures of effectiveness. With today’s software tools, rolling out a new blog should take a weekend at most – even allowing time for some pretty detailed design work.

No, spent MOX fuel can be recycled at Areva’s La Hague facility using existing technology. In fact several such assemblies have been recycled to verify that it can be done.  However, EdF, the main customer for recycling services, has elected to store spent MOX fuel for now to reserve it for recycling into fast reactors when they become available later in this century. Spent MOX fuel can be recycled more efficiently in fast reactors than in LWRs.

Thought you might also be interested in a rumor I picked up at the Nuclear Energy Assembly. Within a month or so, there should be a new pro-nuclear blog emanating out of Charlotte, NC produced by some excited young nuclear professionals. (They mentioned that they had tried to contact you – I recommend responding to their inquiries.)

(a) is this correct?

(b) is the France reprocessing flow chart in my presentation essentially correct?

http://home.comcast.net/~robert.hargraves/public_html/5.NewTechnologies.ppt

http://home.comcast.net/~robert.hargraves/public_html/5.NewTechnologies.ppt

You pose some very interesting questions.

Regarding the transparency of the MOX fuel market, it is important to note that there is no MOX fuel market as such. Customers purchase MOX fuel as part of an agreement to recycle their used fuel. MOX fuel is integral to recycling and vice versa. Because MOX fuel is not a standalone product, it is usually not possible to talk about the price for MOX fuel alone.

There are however some exceptions: we will for example sell MOX fuel from the MOX Project that we are building in South Carolina in partnership with the Shaw Group (to recycle nuclear weapons material). In such instances, the prices for MOX fuel are broadly consistent with those for uranium fuel.

It is important to note that AREVA’s recycling business is just that – a business. Our customers choose to recycle their used fuel and reuse it as MOX fuel because this makes sense for them. And we offer these services because they make business sense for us.

We have discussed the benefits of recycling previously on the blog [link], including reducing the volume required in a repository (and hence the disposal cost), creating a much more durable waste form (vitrified glass logs) with no more IAEA safeguard obligations, reducing the need to mine and enrich new uranium. When you include all of these factors, from an economic perspective, recycling is competitive with the once-through fuel cycle and, from the sustainability perspective, we believe it is much better.

As a far as the EROI calculations you requested, we have a team of scientists working on those calculations as we speak …

Thanks,
Jarret