The government commission reviewing the nation's long-term atomic energy plan has come up with a proposal to maintain the current policy of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, panel sources said Sunday.
If adopted during Friday's meeting of the Atomic Energy Commission to draw up a new atomic energy plan, it would give the green light for the new plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, to start tests using uranium this year and begin operations in 2006.
Amid heated criticism that it is more economical to bury the spent fuel, a majority of commission members have concluded that reprocessing is the better option considering energy security and the environment, the sources said.