SAGA (Kyodo) Saga Gov. Yasushi Furukawa said Tuesday he will endorse a plan by Kyushu Electric Power Co. to use uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, at the No. 3 reactor of the nuclear plant in the town of Genkai.
Furukawa told the prefectural assembly: "I would like to accept the plan. I will make a final decision following discussions at the prefectural assembly."
Last Friday, the Genkai Municipal Assembly adopted a resolution calling on the city to accept Kyushu Electric Power's MOX plan for the plant, located on the coast of the Sea of Japan. Genkai Mayor Tsukasa Terada conveyed the town's consent to the governor Monday.
The governor's statement means the prefectural government is likely to accept the MOX-burning plan by the end of March at the earliest.
The 118,000-mw No. 3 reactor at the four-reactor Genkai nuclear plant is expected to become the country's first reactor to use MOX fuel.
Kyushu Electric Power, which provides electricity to seven prefectures in Kyushu, plans to begin using MOX fuel by fiscal 2010. The central government approved Kyushu Electric's MOX plan last September.