Japan's long and expensive pursuit of a superefficient nuclear reactor — a model once touted as the key to its energy future — now teeters on the brink of failure amid new government concerns about its runaway costs.
The four-decade project to develop a fast-breeder reactor has consumed trillions of yen in funding, so far producing only accidents, controversies and a single hour of electricity. The government decided last month on sharp budget cuts for the project, and one top nuclear official in November raised the possibility of scrapping the plan.
But a move to shut down the fast-breeder reactor project would deliver yet another blow to the nuclear program — already reeling from the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 plant — because it would all but eliminate the long-held national vision of using nuclear fuel on a near-endless cycle.