After decades of repeated troubles, the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor is at a crossroads.

Earlier this month, the Nuclear Regulation Authority lodged its first official request with the education and science ministry to find a new entity to replace the government-backed Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to operate the trouble-plagued facility in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.

The ministry has been given about six months to find a replacement. If it fails to do so, the NRA asked the ministry to conduct a fundamental rethink of Monju's status, which, pundits say, could lead to its decommissioning.