When I said -:
"I believe the reason why they are making modifications to the plants physical structure could be to accommodate this new method they are talking about below?"
Just re reading my post, I reckon I got this partly wrong? they weren't talking about the MOX plant when they said modification would be required, they were talking about the reactors that were to use the old MOX fuel in?
This was the main reason why the reactor people didn't want the older MOX fuel, it was because they had to change their reactor physically to be able to use this older MOX fuel, because it would have run at a higher temperature.
But with this New MOX fuel which would consist of Plutonium and enriched Uranium, there would be absolutely no need to change the reactor, because this new fuel works pretty much the same as LEU.
But if they did change to this new REMIX method they would also have to modify the MOX plant at SRNL to accommodate the change from Plutonium plus Depleted Uranium, to a new mixture of Plutonium and enriched Uranium, which could come from recycled used nuclear fuel, with some of the nuclear poisons removed, it would consist of Plutonium and RepU plus some enriched Uranium as top up fuel (This was the second method they mentioned called REMIX for MOX production.)
As for the using the Weapons grade Plutonium, they could still use that and just mix it with enriched Uranium 235 (UF6 enriched to 5% or possibly less?) which would be the same as the other method using UNF.
REMIX was first developed by the Russians, where they just recycled the UNF containing both Plutonium and Uranium without separation and then add enriched uranium which is enriched to a higher degree to overcome the nuclear poisons left in the RepU.
I reckon the US version will remove those nuclear poisons and thus won’t require as much Uranium enrichment, they may also remove some of the really dangerous stuff as well for burial, making it a much more friendlier fuel to handle?
The MOX plant at Savannah River is part is an environmental clean up by the DOE they are the ones driving this I believe? it may end up getting rid of both unwanted weapons grade Plutonium and also used nuclear fuel, not to mention the clean up of the tails material at Paducah, it will also help to reduce the nuclear waste that has to be buried by about 80% and also for a much much shorter time as well!
Try and tell me the DOE wouldn't be grasping this opportunity with both hands!
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