United Kingdom to look at alternatives to MOX

The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority issued an invitation to submit proposals for the long-term management of plutonium. This invitation comes less than three months after it identified using plutonium in MOX fuel as the preferred option for dealing with its plutonium stock in a report released in December 2011.

The invitation says that the the key judgement of the report regarding various plutonium management options remain valid. However, NDA is "seeking to establish whether there are any parties who would be interested in providing details of alternative proposals that could meet [its] credibility definition," indicating that it would prefer to avoid utilization of plutonium as MOX option. This option has been widely criticized (see Plutonium to MOX: "Repeating Mistakes of the Past" and UK Separated Plutonium Management - A New Sellafield MOX Plant? in this blog).