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NUCLEAR FUEL ARRIVES IN JAPAN FROM FRANCE Nuclear fuel shipped from France has arrived at a nuclear power plant in Japan. The shipment is the first since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011. The fuel is a type called MOX. It is a mixture of plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel and uranium. MOX fuel had been used at 4 reactors in Japan prior to the 2011 accident. But all plant operation and shipments had been halted since the disaster. A ship carrying the fuel ordered by Kansai Electric Power Company left France in April. It arrived on Thursday morning at the utility's Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture, on the Sea of Japan coast. Kansai Electric plans to use the fuel at Takahama's Number 3 hopes to apply for permission to restart operations when new guidelines for nuclear plant safety go into effect in July. Jun. 27, 2013 - Updated 01:50 UTC
