From Nov. 2010: Gearing up for MOX in Japan and US

from "world nuclear news":

Work has officially begun on a plant to manufacture mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in Japan. Meanwhile international plans are in place to train the workforce for a new MOX plant under construction in the USA.

A ceremony including prayers marked the formal start of construction on Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd's (JNFL's) J-MOX plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture. The Rokkasho site is already home to an 800 tonne per year reprocessing facility which has been separating spent fuel since 2007, and JNFL president Yoshihiko Kawai described the J-MOX plant as "a great step in completing the nuclear fuel cycle."

Construction of the J-MOX plant was delayed by three years from the planned 2007 start by revision of seismic criteria following on from the powerful Niigata-Chuetsu-Oki earthquake. Government approvals were granted earlier this year for construction to go ahead. The 130 tonne per year plant, which is estimated to cost ¥190 billion ($2.4 billion), is expected to start up in March 2016.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/WR-Gearing_up_for_MOX_in_Japan_and_US-0111108.html


- just came upon this a bit ago...now that I have a tiny, small clue what "MOX" is, wonder how this is going to work out now - ?

The US MOX plant is being constructed on the Savannah River. (I lived for many years in Beaufort, SC, right up the road)

Rokkasho is north of Sendai - right on the coast, like Sendai -