Thermal reactor fuel reprocessing
Magnox power-reactor fuel has been reprocessed at the Building 205 (B205) plant at Windscale/Sellafield in northwest England since 1964. The plant has served a critical role in the British Magnox reactor programme, while servicing fuel from Japanese and Italian Magnox reactors as well. All Magnox fuel has routinely been transported to Sellafield. By the end of 1995 some 26,800 metric tons of fuel had been processed at B205 from which a total of about 59 metric tons of plutonium had been separated. Magnox fuel reprocessing is expected to continue until 2015, about five years after the shut down of the last Magnox reactor in Britain. By then nearly 90 metric tons of plutonium will have been separated at B205.

Oxide fuel reprocessing began at Windscale in 1969 when a small Head-End Plant (HEP) at which oxide fuel was prepared for feed into the B205 plant was brought into operation. In all 110 metric tons of fuel were processed through HEP/B205 before an accident caused the permanent closure of B204 in 1973. About 400 kg of plutonium was extracted.

Large scale oxide fuel reprocessing began with the commissioning in 1994 of the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) (capacity, 700 metric tons fuel per year). About 70 percent of the first ten years' production at THORP will be dedicated to foreign fuel. 'Baseload' and 'options' contracts for 6600 metric tons of fuel are due to be processed by 2005. Contracts beyond 2005 are less secure. The British utility, British Energy holds contracts for about 2600 metric tons of fuel, while additional contracts for 700 metric tons of fuel were signed by German utilities in 1990. These contracts would secure production at THORP until 2010.

Fast reactor fuel reprocessing
Fast reactor and materials test reactor (MTR) fuel has been reprocessed at Dounreay in northern Scotland since July 1958. Two facilities have been operated by the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA): D1204 for MTR fuel; and D1206 for fast reactor fuel. D1204 is a small facility which has processed fuel from British and non-British research reactors. D1206 began operation in 1961 and processed highly-enriched uranium fuel from the Demonstration Fast Reactor (DFR, shutdown 1977) and MOX fuel from the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR, shutdown 1994). Both reactors were located at Dounreay. By the end of 1995 about 21 metric tons of PFR fuel had been reprocessed at Dounreay, containing some 4.5 metric tons of plutonium. In the absence of new MTR reprocessing contracts, the D1206 plant is therefore expected to be closed down in 1997-98.

Frans Berkhout is a Senior Science Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, UK. He is the leader of the Environment and Technology Programme at SPRU. He was previously with the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies (CEES) at Princeton university, and is the co-author (with David Albright and William Walker) of the forthcoming book, Plutonium and Highlyn Enriched Uranium 1996: World Inventories, Capabilities and Policies, published by Oxford University Press and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).