Japan NRA OKs Plan to Scrap Nuclear Reprocessing Plant
June 14, 2018
Tokyo- The Nuclear Regulation Authority on Wednesday approved a decommissioning plan for a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the village of Tokai in Ibaraki Prefecture, eastern Japan.
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency, the operator of the plant to extract uranium and plutonium from fuel spent at nuclear power stations, estimates that the decommissioning work will take 70 years to complete and cost some one trillion yen.
The government is expected to shoulder most of the cost, which may balloon further depending on the progress of the work.
Under the plan, the JAEA will spend 12 years vitrifying high-level liquid radioactive waste, produced during spent fuel reprocessing, and then focus on work including the demolition of the facility.
At a press conference after the day's regular meeting, NRA Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa said that vitrification makes the liquid waste more manageable and reduces the risk of leaks in the event of earthquakes or other disasters.
"I have a strong interest in whether the vitrification work will be fully completed," he said, adding that the NRA will continue monitoring the process by setting up a designated team.
The facility has reprocessed 1,140 tons of spent nuclear fuel since it started operating in 1981.
The JAEA applied to scrap the plant in June last year, in the light of a huge amount of cost needed for work to make the facility meet the country's new nuclear safety standards, introduced after the March 2011 triple meltdown at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> disaster-crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station. Jiji Press
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