The mixed oxide or Mox nuclear fuel plant in Sellafield, U.K., which was built to supply atomic fuel to foreign nuclear power plants, has produced almost nothing since it was opened six years ago, the Guardian daily reports Monday citing U.K. Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks.
Wicks admitted in response to a parliamentary question that the Mox plant had managed to produce only 2.6 metric tons in any one 12-month period between 2002 and 2007. The report adds that the facility was originally predicted to have an annual throughput of 120 tons of fuel.
The Mox facility, which has been hampered by technical difficulties, was designed to make new fuel from the recycled uranium and plutonium recovered from used nuclear fuel reprocessed by the nearby thermal oxide reprocessing plant.