A regional Japanese power company said Wednesday it will order recycled nuclear fuel from France's Melox as resource-poor Japan steps up its use of nuclear energy despite controversy. Shikoku Electric Power Company, which manages power plants on Japan's southwestern island of Shikoku, said it will sign the contract next week for mixed plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX), which is made partially from spent nuclear fuel.

Shikoku Electric eyes to launch the plutonium-thermal project by the business year to March 2011 at its Ikata nuclear plants in Ehime prefecture.

"We plan to ask Melox to make 21 MOX fuels from the 0.6 tons of plutonium that the company owns in France," a company spokesman said. "We expect the fuels to be produced by the year 2008 before being shipped to Japan."

The government of Japan, which has scarce natural energy resources, has been encouraging recycled fuel, aiming to power 16 to 18 nuclear plants with it by the fiscal year 2010.