Sellafield – what now?
The Sellafield Mox nuclear fuel plant on the Cumbrian coast was closed on August 3rd, 2011. It was set up in the early ‘90s to produce mixed-oxide (Mox) fuel, which is made by re-processing plutonium and uranium previously used in power production. Tepko, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, had signed up to use 50% of the Sellafield output in its nuclear plants, but the Japanese earthquake and tsunami changed all that. Following the disaster, Tepko, who own the Fukushima plants, could buy no further fuel, and Sellafield lost its only market.
© The Guardian
