National Dec 9, 2020
MOX fuel fabrication plant in Japan clears regulator's safety checks
The plant is located 55 meters above sea level and the operator Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. believes it will not be affected by tsunami.
Business | EXPLAINER Mar 29, 2020
A closer look at Kansai Electric and its gift-giving scandal
by Eric Johnston
Earlier this month, Kansai Electric Power Co. concluded that scores of its employees had received cash and gifts worth hundreds of millions of yen from an influential politician in a Fukui Prefecture town where the utility operates a nuclear power plant. The revelations by ...
Editorials Feb 20, 2020
The government and the power industry need to proceed with a long-overdue review of the the MOX nuclear fuel cycle policy.
National Jan 27, 2020
Japan begins second removal of spent MOX fuel from nuclear reactor
Operations have begun to remove a rare type of spent fuel made of plutonium-uranium mixed oxide from a nuclear reactor in central Japan, operator Kansai Electric Power Co. said Monday. The removal of MOX fuel rods from the No. 3 reactor at the Takahama nuclear ...
National Dec 13, 2019
Shikoku Electric to remove fuel from Ikata nuclear reactor, a first since MOX work began in 1997
Shikoku Electric Power Co. said Thursday that it will suspend operations of the No. 3 reactor at its Ikata nuclear power plant on Dec. 26 for routine checkups and remove spent mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel from the reactor. This will mark the first removal of used ...
National Jul 31, 2019
The nation's plutonium stockpile had shrunk as of the end of 2018 by about 1.6 tons from a year earlier, to 45.7 tons, reflecting increased plutonium thermal power generation, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday. Concerns have grown internationally as Japan possesses a large amount of ...
National Sep 15, 2018
A spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, looks set to gain approval for full operation following the completion of most of its safety review. The Nuclear Regulation Authority checked the remaining safety measures against the risks of earthquakes and ...
National Sep 5, 2018
Trade ministry denies report power companies halted funding for reprocessing of nuclear fuel
by Reiji Yoshida
Industry minister Hiroshige Seko has denied a news report that 10 nuclear power plant operators halted funding for the reprocessing of nuclear fuel in fiscal 2016, saying that there is no change in Japan's nuclear fuel recycling policy and that the utilities are now ...
Editorials Jul 7, 2018
Japan is under pressure to shrink its 47-ton stockpile of plutonium.
National Dec 17, 2017
Japan's MOX program faces tough questions as recycling costs balloon for spent atomic fuel
The cost of recycling spent nuclear fuel has surged since Japan began using it in 1999, raising questions about the viability of the reprocessing strategy, it has been learned. Japan is the only non-nuclear weapons state in the world that still engaged in a commercial ...
National Aug 1, 2017
Amount of plutonium held by Japan falls slightly with reactor restarts
Japan's stockpile of plutonium kept inside and outside the country fell slightly at the end of 2016 from a year earlier with the restart of nuclear reactors using plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel, the Cabinet Office said Tuesday. The decrease of around 1 ton to about ...
National Jun 20, 2017
Japan eyes U.S. nuclear pact that renews automatically amid Trump administration vacancies
Japan will seek a nuclear energy pact with the United States that renews automatically while it continues reprocessing spent fuel and enriching uranium, government sources said Tuesday. The government plans to forgo a long-term pact similar to the 30-year bilateral agreement that expires in July ...