BNFL enter into MOX agreement with E.on

BNFL's agreement with E.on has boosted its plans to open a controversial plutonium recycling plant at Sellafield

UK atomic services group, British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) has entered into a preliminary supply agreement with German utility E.on, boosting the company’s plans to open a controversial plutonium recycling plant at its Sellafield site.

Under the terms of the agreement, BNFL would convert all plutonium separated from E.on’s spent fuel at Sellafield into mixed plutonium-uranium oxide fuel for re-use in Germany, said a BNFL official.

If it went ahead, the deal would be the largest single MOX contract for BNFL to date, lifting the total amount of contracted or reserved business from 22 per cent of capacity to 36 per cent.

BNFL’s $658 million Sellafield MOX Plant, which was completed in 1996, is still awaiting government authorisations to start operations. Environment minister Michael Meacher last month launched a fourth public consultation into the plant following protests from environmentalists that it was uneconomic.