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Construction of Tohoku nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant ongoing after 30 years
The completion of Japan Nuclear Fuel's nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, which has been postponed numerous times, could be achieved next year, the company has said.
A public relations official at Japan Nuclear Fuel said the company is "now confident to a certain degree" that the plant for processing spent fuel from nuclear power stations will be completed in fiscal 2026.
Japanese power companies have been forced to store spent fuel within the premises of their nuclear power plants due to a delay of more than 25 years in the construction of the reprocessing plant.
At one of the facilities at the plant recently shown to the media, spent fuel is stored at the bottom of a 27-meter-long, 11m-wide and 12m-deep pool. The plant has capacity to store 3,000 metric tons of spent fuel, but roughly 99% is already filled.
The plant is for extracting uranium and plutonium that can be reused from spent nuclear fuel. It was supposed to play a central role in the nuclear fuel cycle, which the government regards as the pivot of its energy policy.
After construction began in 1993, the plant was originally scheduled to be completed in 1997.
But the completion has been postponed as many as 27 times, and a safety review by the Nuclear Regulation Authority is still ongoing.
Based on the expected completion of the reprocessing plant in fiscal 2026, Kansai Electric Power reviewed its earlier policy regarding shipments of spent fuel from its nuclear plants in Fukui Prefecture and submitted a new road map to the Fukui Prefectural Government in February this year.
The following month, Fukui Gov. Tatsuji Sugimoto met with Kansai Electric President Nozomu Mori and gave the prefecture's green light to the new schedule, making it possible for the company to continue operating three nuclear reactors that are more than 40 years old as a result.
The three are the No. 1 and No. 2 reactors at the Takahama nuclear plant and the No. 3 reactor at the Mihama plant.
The reprocessing plant's completion in fiscal 2026 as planned is indispensable for the continued operation of the three Kansai Electric reactors.
However, many are concerned about the possibility of further delays.
