§ Viscount Hanworthasked Her Majesty's Government:
To what extent the use of MOX fuel can eliminate surplus plutonium from modern nuclear reactors.
Earl FerrersPlutonium from civil reprocessing plants and from redundant nuclear weapons can be made into mixed oxide (or MOX) fuel. This can be used in many existing nuclear power stations to generate electricity. I understand that independent studies conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and using credible scenarios, have shown that burning MOX fuel within established civil nuclear cycles would bring the world plutonium stockpile into equilibrium and then gradually deplete it during the first decade of the next century. Some 400 tonnes of MOX fuel have been used world wide since 1963 and several countries, including France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland, plan to increase their use of MOX fuel.