A member of the Dutch Socialist party has requested the countrys government to increase and extend research into plutonium transmutation at the European Commission-owned Petten research reactor in the Netherlands.

Diederik Samsom, a former member of Greenpeace, submitted the request to the government on 26th June, after the positive results of a recent plutonium transmutation experiment - designed to reduce stockpiles of plutonium - were made public. In his request, Mr Samsom asks the government to consider an increase and extension of the research, (in order) to contribute to a more effective and efficient reduction of plutonium stockpiles - of both civil and military origin.

The Dutch nuclear research and consultancy group, NRG, told NucNet that the item is now on the political agenda, and will be discussed further. It adds that other political parties in the Netherlands support the importance of the research, but are not prepared to increase financial support to the project at this stage.
A recent plutonium transmutation experiment at Petten - carried out by NRG in conjunction with the Japanese Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI), and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland - showed that the irradiation of plutonium, when embedded in inert matrix fuel, has the potential for highly efficient plutonium burning.
NRG said: With this recent developed technology, the net plutonium consumption in light water reactors is four times higher than with the traditional mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel concept. This is achieved by the use of uranium-free fuel, which generates no new plutonium during irradiation.
NRG, together with JAERI and PSI, says research will now focus on higher percentages of transmutation, as well as on transmutation of other elements that contribute to the lifetime and radio-toxicity of nuclear waste.
Construction of the High-Flux Reactor at Petten started in 1957, and the reactor celebrated 40 years of operation in November 2001. It will reach the end of its operational lifetime in 2015, and studies for a replacement reactor are ongoing (see News No. 103, 12th March 2003).

Source: NRG

Editor: Ursula Dinnis

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• NRG Communications, Juliette van der Laan-Jenniskens, phone +31 (0)224 - 56 4967, email: j.vanderlaan@nrg.eu or visit website: www.nrg-nl.com