Plutonium fuel fabrication

Plutonium has been used since the very beginning of nuclear energy, and has become the subject of controversy. While plutonium reprocessing and recycling were chosen by many countries in the 1960s-1970s and are still chosen today, in 2002, by countries planning a major expansion of their nuclear power production (Great Britain, France, Japan), or countries such as China, which is making strong progress, they were banned in the United States by President Carter in the late 1970s, and are now strongly contested by opposition groups in Europe.

Under these conditions, any claim to objectivity is ambitious, and the present article is likely to bear the stamp of the period in which it was written. Readers are urged to give due weight to proven scientific data, hypotheses and models, and to forgive the authors for taking sides, intentionally or otherwise, in their presentation.

Plutonium is simultaneously a fuel, an energy resource, a radiotoxic substance, a potentially hazardous waste, and a material that can be used for military purposes. The public's perception of plutonium is influenced by the context in which it is used: the threat of dwindling energy resources, as was the case in France in the early 1970s, or very intense international tension, a "Cold War" climate, or a situation of political détente, as is the case in Europe and North America today.

The proliferation debate is more political than technical.

The following article will therefore briefly address the two aspects of energy resources on the one hand, and the management of long-lived radioactive bodies on the other.

The complete study of the subject includes the articles :

— BN 3 630 - "Plutonium fuel fabrication" (this article) ;

—  - "Manufacture of plutonium fuel for nuclear reactors";

- "Manufacture of plutonium fuel for PWRs and BWRs".