MOX fuel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mixed oxide, or MOX fuel, is a blend of oxides of plutonium and natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium which behaves similarly (though not identically) to the low enriched uranium feed for which most nuclear reactors were designed. MOX fuel is an alternative to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in the light water reactors that predominate nuclear power generation.
Thorium-plutonium fuel has some attractive characteristics such as much lower production of and more complete burning of minor actinidesand has been used in a few reactors to date, but is usually referred to specifically as thorium-plutonium rather than MOX to avoid confusion with uranium-plutonium MOX fuel.
One attraction of MOX fuel is that it is a way of disposing of surplus weapons-grade plutonium, which otherwise would have to be disposed as nuclear waste, and would remain a nuclear proliferation risk.[1] However, there have been fears that normalising the global commercial use of MOX fuel and the associated expansion of reprocessing will itself lead to greater proliferation risk.[2][3]
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