Translation of "réacteur à combustible métallique " (French → English) :

Metal fuels, fuel 'mixtures' or "pyrotechnic" 'mixtures', in particle form whether spherical, atomised, spheroidal, flaked or ground, manufactured from material consisting of 99 % or more of any of the following:

In the process of a progressive nuclear phase out, reactors and other nuclear facilities posing greater risks must be shut down immediately, i.e. all nuclear reactors and other nuclear installations in seismic regions or coastal areas with significant risk for rising sea level or a possibility for tsunamis, all reactors without secondary or full pressure containment, all nuclear boiling water reactors (BWR) with a single cooling system and storage of spent fuel outside of the containment and all nuclear installations built before 1980;

88. Recalls that generation IV reactors are expected to improve the efficient use of fuel and reduce the quantity of waste; calls therefore on the Commission and the Member States to focus on the development of structural materials and on optimising the use of nuclear fuel, as well as to support projects aimed at developing prototypes of generation IV reactors;

As regards a twin-unit facility with the same WWER 440/230 reactor type, the figure, purely for decommissioning up to the ‘green field’ stage, quoted by the Greifswald-based German state-controlled company Energiewerke Nord is €434 m. From a total figure of approximately €3.1 bn for seven WWER reactors (4 x WWER 440/230, 1 x WWER 440/213, 1 x WWER-70), including waste disposal and final storage of fuel elements, it can be inferred that the cost for a twin-unit WWER 440/230 facility would amount to some €890 m. These costs were calculated according to a somewhat older price basis than the one used for Bohunice and from that point of view ...[+++]are consequently more of an understatement than not; on the other hand, because of site conditions, they cover treatment of fuel elements of a kind not needed in Bohunice.

E. whereas radioactive material is regularly transported over long distances, not only within the European Union but also to and from the European Union and other continents: radioactive sources and other isotopes for research, medical and industrial use (forming the vast majority of such movements); spent nuclear fuel transported to the La Hague and Sellafield reprocessing facilities; the plutonium extracted from reprocessing sent to MOX (mixed oxide fuel) production plants; the final waste product returned to their countries of origin; MOX fuel used in specific types of combustion reactors,

Such a reactor is one of the most suitable for the production of weapons-grade plutonium, (Pu), since (a) it contains only natural uranium metal as fuel, which is much easier to chemically reprocess (so as to extract the plutonium which builds up in the fuel), than would be the uranium oxide fuels used in modern pressurised water reactors; and (b) because its on-line refuelling characteristics permit the extraction of fuel elements after a relatively short period in the reactor, which