Transportation by Road of Plutonium as a Reusable Product

Since the very beginning of its nuclear programme, France has been firmly committed to recycling valuable materials contained in the spent nuclear fuel. Uranium has a fissile content close to natural uranium and can replace it as a raw material, while plutonium can be mixed with natural or depleted uranium giving rise to a new fuel: the MOX fuel. Initiated over 30 years ago, such a strategy was fisrt aimed at recycling plutonium in fast neutron reactors. In the mid-1980s, as the fast reactor programme appeared to be delayed, the French utility EDF decided to implement plutonium recycling in Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) through MOX fuel.