In its North America blog French nuclear giants Areva have been boasting of the wonderful, miraculous properties of Mixed-Oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel:

MOX has many benefits, but among the most important are that it allows utilities to use recycled nuclear fuel and reduces the amount of material that must be disposed in a final repository.

Reasons of time and space must have prevented Areva’s blogger from also telling us that MOX has to be transported under armed guard – as we’ve seen with the Pacific Heron, the ship that has just arrived in Japan with its payload of the biggest plutonium shipment in history, a complement of armed British police, and naval guns.

Also, the Areva blog fails to mention the benefits MOX has for terrorists. Because of the way it’s produced, the plutonium element is easier to extract from MOX than conventional nuclear fuel meaning it poses a greater risk of nuclear proliferation.

The Areva blog did find space in its piece to tell us about the MOX reprocessing plant it is building in America…

In the United States, AREVA is partnering with the Shaw Group construct the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina. This facility will convert former weapons-grade material into MOX fuel for U.S. electric utilities. Construction began in August 2007 and the facility is now approximately 17 percent complete.

…but failed to mention that the construction project ‘issued a notice of violation’ after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found that…

…visual inspection procedures for quality control evaluation of piping did not meet basic requirements; one examiner’s credentials did not meet requirements; MOX Services failed to review BF Shaw’s weld repair and quality control memos; BF Shaw failed to track deficiency reports linked to previous audits […] rules for reporting weld defects/repairs to MOX Services were not followed; tanks were fabricated without a formal weld repair/rework procedure in place; MOX Services’ review of welder qualifications failed to detect that a welder who worked on the project was not qualified; an examiner involved in visual and liquid penetrant examinations failed to perform those tasks using approved procedures; tests of repair welds were not done according to specifications.

What is it with Areva and safety and welding procedures? So in Finland, so in South Carolina it seems. We look forward to Areva blogging about it.