Progression of the Japanese Nuclear Fuel Cycle Moving Smoothly

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In a June press release, Hokuriku Electric Power Company (TYO:9505) (Hokuden) (Toyama, Japan) announced that a shipment of 480 drums of low-level radioactive waste generated by the Shika Nuclear Power Plant reached its destination at Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited's (JNFL) (Rokkasho, Japan) reprocessing and disposal facility.

More than 30% of Hokuden's electrical output is generated by nuclear power plants, and the company fully owns one nuclear power station and partially owns two. The Shika Nuclear Power Plant, located in the Hakui district of the Ishikawa prefecture, generates 1,898 megawatts with one boiling water reactor, which began operations in 1993, and one advanced boiling water reactor that began operations in 2006.

Hokuden, which services Toyama, Ishikawa, and parts of the Gifu and Fukui prefectures, is hoping to implement Japan's budding pluthermal policies by incorporating the use of mixed oxide fuel (MOX fuel) in Shika's units in 2015. Though the June shipment was bound for underground disposal, Hokuden plans to construct an interim storage facility for spent fuel at the Shika Nuclear Power Plant, which is about 300 kilometers west of Tokyo. Spent uranium fuel rods have the potential to undergo uranium-enrichment to be utilized in MOX fuel. Hokuden expects to begin construction in the second quarter of 2012 and plans to build an $880 million facility capable of housing up to 4,000 spent uranium fuel rods, as well as two decommissioned steam turbine-generators. Construction is anticipated to be completed in the first half of 2016.

The Rokkasho site, operated by Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited in the Aomori prefecture, has been under construction since the early 1990s and now features Japan's first spent-fuel reprocessing facility, as well as high-level radioactive waste interim storage facilities, uranium enrichment facilities, and low-level radioactive waste underground disposal. JNFL has been conducting tests with MOX fuel since the reprocessing plant was commissioned in 2005 and is ready to expand its fabrication facilities at Rokkasho. If all goes according to plan, JNFL plans to begin construction of a new 8,000-square-meter reprocessing facility to produce 130 metric tons heavy metal per year of MOX. The new $2.2 billion facilities, which are scheduled to be completed in 2016, will also include energy-management and materials-management buildings to help safely supervise further fabrication of MOX to fully develop Japan's nuclear fuel cycle. The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, which includes Hokuriku Electric Power Company and JNFL, has been steadily moving toward this goal since 2003 with JNFL taking the lead.

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