The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan announced Friday that it will delay its plan to begin commercial use of plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel by five years.
The announcement was widely expected, since some utilities haven't gotten full approval to burn the controversial fuel yet from the central and local governments.
The government and power industry are promoting a "pluthermal" nuclear fuel cycle that calls for collecting spent fuel and sending it overseas for reprocessing into plutonium to produce MOX. The industry had envisioned starting pluthermal power generation at 16 to 18 nuclear reactors across the country by fiscal 2010.
Of the 10 regional utilities that make up the federation, the Kyushu, Shikoku and Chubu electric power companies will go ahead with plans to start pluthermal power generation this fall using MOX fuel produced in France, power industry sources said.
The fuel was delivered to the three power companies in May after arriving aboard two freighters from France.
No other utilities have substantial plans to launch pluthermal power generation.