ANSTO’s shipment of 276 spent nuclear fuel elements that left Sydney on 22nd November 2004, has arrived safely in France for reprocessing at the La Hague - plant of the Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires (COGEMA).
The spent fuel represents seven years of ANSTO’s research reactor operations, during which time over three million patient treatments for nuclear medicine were produced.
The shipment was securely packed in five reinforced casks that are extensively tested to withstand a range of events and transported in a special purpose cargo ship – the Panthera – that is designed to carry radioactive material.
This is the fourth shipment that the COGEMA-La Hague facility will process under a contract signed by ANSTO and COGEMA in January, 1999.
The transportation of the fuel follows a Federal Government decision in September 1997 to ship all used fuel overseas for reprocessing.