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Publication Laka-library:
The MOX Industry or the Civilian Use of Plutonium: Risks and Health Effects Associated with the Production and Use of MOX (1994)

Author	C.Küppers, M.Sailer, IPPNW
Date	September 1994
Classification	6.01.2.56/25 (PLUTONIUM - MOX & POSSIBLE RE-USE WEAPONS PU / HEU)
Remarks	English translation of 6.01.2.56/23
Front

Chapter 1 :
Introduction

Mixed oxide, or MOX for short, is the form in which plutonium is used in the 
civilian branch of the nuclear industry. The MOX industry is in deep crisis, with 
growing doubts cast on its purpose; and the movement against it is gaining
impetus, too. Nonetheless, the nuclear lobby plans to massively expand this 
MOX industry in several countries over the next years. Many traces of this project 
have recently become visible in the media: shipment of 1. 7 t plutonium from 
France to Japan; debate over the start-up of the THORP reprocessing plant in
Great Britain; permanent conflicts in Germany over the MOX fuel fabrication 
facility in Hanau; debate in Belgium over the massive movement into the MOX 
industry. But the interconnections behind the scenes are largely unknown.
This study has therefore been commissioned to examine and present the 
background facts and risks of the MOX industry in its three main elements: 
reprocessing, MOX fuel assembly fabrication and the use of MOX in reactors. 
The authors of the study have been working for many years on the technical 
and health risks of the developing MOX industry. Their work was initially 
concerned mainly with Germany, which has been and continues to be one of 
the most massive promotors of the MOX industry. But it has transpired to be an 
inescapable outcome of the international connections of these developments
that the authors have spread their attention to cover the MOX industry in all 
relevant countries.

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