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 ...
Trade ministry denies report power companies halted funding for reprocessing of nuclear fuel
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 ...
Japan is under pressure to shrink its 47-ton stockpile of plutonium.
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 ...
Bucking public sentiment, Atomic Energy Commission backs nuclear power for national energy mix
The policy-setting Atomic Energy Commission on Thursday called for nuclear power to remain a key component of the nation's energy supply despite broad public support for a less nuclear-reliant society. The commission recommended in a report that nuclear power account for at least 20 percent ...
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 ...
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 ...
Nuclear cash cow Monju now a liability for residents as plant faces ax
In February 1983, Mayor Koichi Takagi of Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, spoke to residents in the town of Shiga, Ishikawa Prefecture, who were hoping the town would be chosen as the site for a new nuclear power plant. Tsuruga already hosted two conventional reactors and, just ...
The restart of reactors at the Takahama nuclear power plant raises a number of worriesome issues.
In death knell for MOX project, U.S. to deem 6 tons of plutonium nuclear waste
The U.S. government plans to designate 6 metric tons of surplus plutonium now stored in South Carolina as waste and ship it to a storage facility in New Mexico, according to a preliminary notice filed on a federal website on Wednesday. The notice, to be ...
Former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Morihiro Hosokawa on Thursday visited the northern Japanese city of Hakodate in response to it filing a lawsuit to suspend the construction of a nearby nuclear power plant. The two former prime ministers, who have become stern anti-nuclear campaigners ...
J-Power forges ahead with Oma nuclear plant despite local tensions
Electricity Power Development Co. applied Tuesday for safety checks at the Oma nuclear power plant, a facility under construction in Aomori Prefecture slated for startup in fiscal 2021. It is the first time a power producer has sought safety checks on a reactor under construction ...
