IMPROVEMENTS AT THE MELOX FACILITY

MELOX is a modern, large PWR Mixed Plutonium/Uranium oxide fuel (MOX) fabrication facility located in Marcoule, France, having a nominal fabrication capacity of 115 tons oxide per year using 6 tons of plutonium. The handling of nuclear material in MELOX is highly automated. Consequently, the nuclear material is not easily accessible for inspectors, and the material follow-up system is highly computerized. The subject of this paper is to present the scheme of safeguards activities devised for MELOX, and to demonstrate how this approach solves the problem of successfully safeguarding a large MOX fabrication facility, using modern technology including unattended data acquisition systems for NDA equipment and a large amount of computerized data. MELOX reached in 1997 its full capacity for the first time, and we are now able to measure the highest efficiency of the safeguards in this plant. In order to produce others types of assemblies, MELOX is building a new part of the plant (BWR assemblies) with the implementation of others safeguards systems. The MELOX plant is going to produce assemblies for Japan in 1999. The safeguards implemented at MELOX are effective and efficient and COGEMA prepares plans to increase the capacity of the plant in order to produce more than 250 tons around the year 2000 with the close cooperation of the international organizations.