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45-453: Borssele is home to the Borssele nuclear power plant . The village's near-symmetrical street plan from 1616 follows a rectangular design with four streets all leading to a central square (called the "Plein"). The streets are named according to their cardinal directions . The village was first mentioned in 976 as Brumsale, and means "single room house on the bank ". The island of Borssele

90-436: A press and converted into pellets. The pellets can then be sintered into mixed uranium and plutonium oxide. Plutonium from reprocessed fuel is usually fabricated into MOX within less than five years of its production to avoid problems resulting from impurities produced by the decay of short-lived isotopes of plutonium. In particular, plutonium-241 decays to americium-241 with a 14-year half-life. Because americium-241

135-592: A 'fonds voor duurzame energie' (fund for the R&;D of renewable energy) from the profits generated by the operating time extension. On December 15, 2021, the new Dutch coalition announced plans to build two new nuclear power plants in the Netherlands. The site for these new plants remains a question for now, but it is possible both could end up in Borssele as Rotterdam wants to focus on hydrogen power and Groningen

180-646: A lesser extent in Russia , India and Japan . In the UK THORP operated from 1994 to 2018. China plans to develop fast breeder reactors and reprocessing. Reprocessing of spent commercial-reactor nuclear fuel is not permitted in the United States due to nonproliferation considerations. Germany had plans for a reprocessing plant at Wackersdorf but as this failed to materialize, it instead relied on French nuclear reprocessing capabilities until legally outlawing

225-410: A new reactor with a complete fuel loading of MOX. As 2011, of the total nuclear fuel used, MOX provides about 2%. Licensing and safety issues of using MOX fuel include: About 30% of the plutonium originally loaded into MOX fuel is consumed by use in a thermal reactor. In theory, if one third of the core fuel load is MOX and two-thirds uranium fuel, there is zero net change in the mass of plutonium in

270-508: A spent fuel would be difficult to reprocess for further reuse (burning) of plutonium. Regular reprocessing of biphasic spent MOX is difficult because of the low solubility of PuO 2 in nitric acid. As of 2015, the only demonstration of twice-recycled, high-burnup fuel occurred in the Phénix fast reactor. Reprocessing of commercial nuclear fuel to make MOX is performed in France and to

315-402: A total price of €87/MWh (8.7 c/kWh). Experts view the price as unusually low (the lowest price was 10.3 c/kWh), and consider finance, high wind of 9.5 m/s and scaling as main drivers for the decreased price. Proximity to shore also means the project can use alternating current transformer and cables to shore, instead of direct current , decreasing the cost. The wind farm operators only handle

360-438: Is a gamma ray emitter, its presence is a potential occupational health hazard. It is possible, however, to remove the americium from the plutonium by a chemical separation process. Even under the worst conditions, the americium/plutonium mixture is less radioactive than a spent-fuel dissolution liquor, so it should be relatively straightforward to recover the plutonium by PUREX or another aqueous reprocessing method. It

405-624: Is also called "Mountain of Troy" is the remnant of the 11th century castle. Borssele was home to 819 people in 1840. In 1927, a railway station was built on the Goes to Hoedekenskerke railway line. It closed in 1934. The village is the site of the Netherlands' only commercial nuclear power plant , the 485 MW Borssele nuclear power plant . A nearby area in the North Sea contains the Borssele Offshore Wind Farms , and

450-476: Is an alternative to the low-enriched uranium fuel used in the light-water reactors that predominate nuclear power generation. For example, a mixture of 7% plutonium and 93% natural uranium reacts similarly, although not identically, to low-enriched uranium fuel (3 to 5% uranium-235). MOX usually consists of two phases, UO 2 and PuO 2 , and/or a single phase solid solution (U,Pu)O 2 . The content of PuO 2 may vary from 1.5 wt.% to 25–30 wt.% depending on

495-617: Is considered too controversial by most. In 2009, the Dutch utility Delta, which owns 50% of Elektriciteits Produktiemaatschappij Zuid-Nederland (EPZ), submitted a start-up memorandum to the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment , beginning the process of building a second unit at Borssele. The choice of reactor design for the new project has not been disclosed, although Delta says it expects construction costs to be in

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540-458: Is possible that both americium and curium could be added to a U/Pu MOX fuel before it is loaded into a fast reactor or a subcritical reactor run in "Actinide burner mode". This is one means of transmutation. Work with curium is much harder than americium because curium is a neutron emitter, the MOX production line would need to be shielded with both lead and water to protect the workers. Also,

585-471: Is scheduled for more offshore wind farm development. The first two stages for a combined 700-760 MegaWatt capacity was awarded to DONG Energy (among 36-38 bidders) in July 2016 at a price of 7.27 euro cent per kilowatt hour for 15 years, after which it would produce at market conditions. The price will not be adjusted for inflation. TenneT receives a further €14/MWh (1.4 c/kWh) for transmission, giving

630-434: Is significant – greater than 50% of the initial plutonium loading. However, during the burning of MOX the ratio of fissile (odd numbered) isotopes to non-fissile (even) drops from around 65% to 20%, depending on burn up. This makes any attempt to recover the fissile isotopes difficult and any bulk Pu recovered would require such a high fraction of Pu in any second generation MOX that it would be impractical. This means that such

675-496: Is the only nuclear power plant still operational for electricity production in the Netherlands . Its net output is 485  MWe . The Borssele nuclear power plant was built by Siemens and has been operational since 1973. Originally it was built primarily to supply relatively cheap electricity to an aluminum smelting facility, opened by French concern Pechiney at a nearby site in 1971, that for many years used two-thirds of

720-460: The actinides , including 92 U , fast reactors could use all of them for fuel. All actinides can undergo neutron induced fission with unmoderated or fast neutrons. A fast reactor is therefore more efficient than a thermal reactor for using plutonium and higher actinides as fuel. These fast reactors are better suited for the transmutation of other actinides than thermal reactors. Because thermal reactors use slow or moderated neutrons,

765-473: The spent fuel and the cycle could be repeated; however, there remains multiple difficulties in reprocessing spent MOX fuel. As of 2010, plutonium is only recycled once in thermal reactors, and spent MOX fuel is separated from the rest of the spent fuel to be stored as waste. All plutonium isotopes are either fissile or fertile, although plutonium-242 needs to absorb 3 neutrons before becoming fissile curium -245; in thermal reactors isotopic degradation limits

810-580: The "Raad van State", and all questions of civilians and all opposition against the transports were handled properly. All that time it was impossible to send spent fuel to France, and the used fuel rods were piling up in the spent fuel pool. Between 2012 and 2015 ten transports were planned, in which each time 50 percent more fuel rods than usual would be taken by train to La Hague. The reprocessed uranium would be enriched in Russia, by mixing it with high enriched uranium from nuclear-powered submarines, discarded after

855-425: The Netherlands and is increasingly viewed as one of many possibilities to reduce carbon emissions and increase national energy self-reliance. As a result, the Dutch government decided in 2006 that Borssele would remain operational until 2033. In June 2006, the government made a contract ("Borssele-convenant") with the owners of the plant, Delta and Essent. Delta and Essent commit themselves to pay € 250 million into

900-494: The actinides that are not fissionable with thermal neutrons tend to absorb the neutrons instead of fissioning. This leads to buildup of heavier actinides and lowers the number of thermal neutrons available to continue the chain reaction. A subcritical reactor with an external neutron source could either be run in the fast neutron spectrum (without the need for highly enriched fuels as otherwise common in fast reactors) or use thermal neutrons to breed fissile materials, compensating

945-518: The cold-war. A quarter of the uranium would stay in Russia, to be used in nuclear power stations there. The first transport was at 7 June 2011. Although activists tried to delay the transport, the next day the fuel rods arrived in La Hague. The use of nuclear energy is a controversial issue in Dutch politics. The first commercial nuclear plant in the Netherlands, Dodewaard , was decommissioned in 1997 after only 28 years of service. This decision

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990-424: The disadvantage of forming much radioactive dust. A mixture of uranyl nitrate and plutonium nitrate in nitric acid is converted by treatment with a base such as ammonia to form a mixture of ammonium diuranate and plutonium hydroxide. After heating in a mixture of 5% hydrogen and 95% argon will form a mixture of uranium dioxide and plutonium dioxide . Using a base , the resulting powder can be run through

1035-525: The farms, as TenneT handles the transmission. The 752 MW Borssele 1 & 2 was commissioned in late 2020. In April 2021, Ørsted agreed to sell half of the facility to Norges Bank Investment Management . One turbine caught fire in October 2021. Most of the wind farm continued operating. The facility is serviced by a surface effect ship . Two more stages with a further 680-740 MW went on auction on 29 September 2016 with 26 bids from 7 consortia . The auction

1080-513: The first time. According to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), CANDU reactors could use 100% MOX cores without physical modification. AECL reported to the United States National Academy of Sciences committee on plutonium disposition that it has extensive experience in testing the use of MOX fuel containing from 0.5 to 3% plutonium. The content of un-burnt plutonium in spent MOX fuel from thermal reactors

1125-634: The life of the core, so adding some plutonium oxide to the fuel at manufacture is not in principle a very radical step. About 30 thermal reactors in Europe (Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and France) are using MOX and an additional 20 have been licensed to do so. Most reactors use it as about one third of their core, but some will accept up to 50% MOX assemblies. In France, EDF aims to have all its 900 MWe series of reactors running with at least one-third MOX. Japan aimed to have one third of its reactors using MOX by 2010, and has approved construction of

1170-479: The loss of neutrons by increasing the flux from the neutron source. The first step is separating the plutonium from the remaining uranium (about 96% of the spent fuel) and the fission products with other wastes (together about 3%) using the PUREX process. MOX fuel can be made by grinding together uranium oxide (UO 2 ) and plutonium oxide (PuO 2 ) before the mixed oxide is pressed into pellets, but this process has

1215-487: The neutron irradiation of curium generates the higher actinides , such as californium , which increase the neutron dose associated with the used nuclear fuel ; this has the potential to pollute the fuel cycle with strong neutron emitters. As a result, it is likely that curium will be excluded from most MOX fuels. A subcritical reactor such as the Accelerator Driven System could "burn" such fuels if

1260-517: The nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi . In May 2018, the Department of Energy reported that the plant would require another $ 48 billion to complete, on top of the $ 7.6 billion already spent. Construction was cancelled. Most modern thermal reactors using high burn up uranium oxide fuel produce a quite significant proportion of their output towards the end of core life from fission of plutonium produced by neutron capture in uranium 238 earlier in

1305-690: The nuclear power plant in Borssele. In 1996 there was an INES 2 -incident at Borssele. Nobody was hurt. Based on information from the website of the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, and the Environment and the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands. MOX fuel Mixed oxide fuel , commonly referred to as MOX fuel , is nuclear fuel that contains more than one oxide of fissile material , usually consisting of plutonium blended with natural uranium , reprocessed uranium , or depleted uranium . MOX fuel

1350-525: The nuclear recycling-factory in La Hague . This contract ended in 2015. Since 2006 it was impossible to transport the used fuel-rod to France, because the French laws on nuclear fuel were changed. The new law insisted that the nuclear waste should return to the Netherlands within a short period. This required a change in Dutch law too, but it took 5 years before all new permissions for transports were handled by

1395-447: The operating characteristics of a reactor, and the plant must be designed or adapted slightly to take it; for example, more control rods are needed. Often only a third to half of the fuel load is switched to MOX, but for more than 50% MOX loading, significant changes are necessary and a reactor needs to be designed accordingly. The System 80 reactor design deployed at the U.S. Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station near Phoenix, Arizona

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1440-412: The order of €4–5 billion ($ 6–7 billion). The company said in 2009 that if all goes well, a construction permit application could be submitted in 2012, with a construction start date of 2013, and plant operation in 2018. In January 2012, DELTA announced it was putting the plans for a "Borssele II" on hold for 2 or 3 years. In June, Delta announced that it would become the majority shareholder of

1485-425: The output of the power plant. In 2006, the installation of a modern steam turbine brought the original electrical output of 449 MW up to 485 MW. In July 2011, Borssele received permission from the government to burn MOX fuel . Currently, the uranium used by Borssele comes from Kazakhstan . Areva NC reprocesses the spent fissionable material. Part of the deal is that the radioactive waste (i.e.

1530-451: The plutonium into usable fuel increases the energy derived from the original uranium by some 12%, and if the uranium-235 is also recycled by re-enrichment, this becomes about 20%. Plutonium is only reprocessed and used once as MOX fuel; spent MOX fuel, with a high proportion of minor actinides and plutonium isotopes, is stored as waste. Existing nuclear reactors must be re-licensed before MOX fuel can be introduced because using it changes

1575-456: The plutonium recycle potential. About 1% of spent nuclear fuel from current LWRs is plutonium, with approximate isotopic composition 52% 94 Pu , 24% 94 Pu , 15% 94 Pu , 6% 94 Pu and 2% 94 Pu when the fuel is first removed from the reactor. Because the fission-to-capture ratio of high energy or fast neutrons changes to favour fission for almost all of

1620-416: The plutonium-239 is "burned" in the reactor. It behaves like uranium-235, with a slightly higher cross section for fission, and its fission releases a similar amount of energy . Typically, about one percent of the spent fuel discharged from a reactor is plutonium , and some two-thirds of the plutonium is plutonium-239. Worldwide, almost 100 tonnes of plutonium in spent fuel arises each year. Reprocessing

1665-405: The problems associated with their handling and transportation are solved. However, to avoid power excursions due to unintended criticality, the neutronics must be known precisely at any given point in time, including the effect of build-up or consumption of neutron emitting nuclides as well as neutron poisons. MOX fuel containing thorium and plutonium oxides is also being tested. According to

1710-408: The products of the reprocessing that are not useful) are taken back by the Netherlands. The Central Organization for Radioactive Waste ( COVRA ), also in Borssele, is the national storage facility for all radioactive wastes . It is a surface facility suitable for the next 100 years. Borssele produces around 12 tonnes of high level waste annually. The nuclear plant had a long lasting contract with

1755-929: The risk of nuclear proliferation , by encouraging increased separation of plutonium from spent fuel in the civil nuclear fuel cycle . In every uranium-based nuclear reactor core there is both fission of uranium isotopes such as uranium-235 , and the formation of new, heavier isotopes due to neutron capture , primarily by uranium-238 . Most of the fuel mass in a reactor is uranium-238. By neutron capture and two successive beta decays , uranium-238 becomes plutonium-239 , which, by successive neutron capture, becomes plutonium-240 , plutonium-241 , plutonium-242 , and (after further beta decays) other transuranic or actinide nuclides. Plutonium-239 and plutonium-241 are fissile , like uranium-235. Small quantities of uranium-236 , neptunium-237 and plutonium-238 are formed similarly from uranium-235. Normally, with low-enriched uranium fuel being changed every five years or so, most of

1800-710: The transport of German spent fuel for reprocessing in 2005. The United States was building a MOX fuel plant at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Although the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Duke Energy expressed interest in using MOX reactor fuel from the conversion of weapons-grade plutonium, TVA (the most likely customer) said in April 2011 that it would delay a decision until it could see how MOX fuel performed in

1845-447: The type of nuclear reactor. One attraction of MOX fuel is that it is a way of utilizing surplus weapons-grade plutonium, an alternative to storage of surplus plutonium, which would need to be secured against the risk of theft for use in nuclear weapons . On the other hand, some studies warned that normalizing the global commercial use of MOX fuel and the associated expansion of nuclear reprocessing would increase, rather than reduce,

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1890-463: Was designed for 100% MOX core compatibility, but so far has always operated on fresh low enriched uranium. In theory, the three Palo Verde reactors could use the MOX arising from seven conventionally fueled reactors each year and would no longer require fresh uranium fuel. Fast neutron BN-600 and BN-800 reactors are designed for 100% MOX loading. In 2022, the BN-800 was fully loaded with MOX fuel for

1935-400: Was lost in 1530 and only the hill on which the castle had stood remained. The village of Monster which was located on the island had been destroyed. In 1615, a dike was built to reclaim the land. Borssele is a planned polder village which was designed in 1616 by Cornelis Adriaensz Soetwater. The Dutch Reformed church was built between 1849 and 1852 in neoclassic style. The Vliedberg which

1980-474: Was taken against the background of political opposition to nuclear energy. In 1994, government and parliament decided to close down the Borssele plant as of 2004. However, due to legal action by owners and employees of the plant and changes in government policy in 2002, the decommissioning was delayed until 2013, meaning the plant would exactly fulfill its originally intended life span of 40 years. In recent years nuclear energy has become less controversial in

2025-524: Was won by the Blauwwind II c.v. consortium with 8MW Vestas-Mitsubishi turbines , at a price of 5.45 c/kWh. The total subsidy is estimated at €300 million, down from the expected €5 billion. Borssele nuclear power plant The Borssele Nuclear Power Station ( Kerncentrale Borssele ) is a nuclear power plant near the Dutch town of Borssele . It has a pressurised water reactor (PWR). Borssele

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