Lack of storage could force Fugen reactor closure
Date: 07-Oct-99
Country: JAPAN
Operators of Fugen, state-run Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute
(JNC), said the advanced thermal reactor is due to be stopped around
mid-January to exchange fuel.
A JNC spokesman said that unless its reprocessing plant in Tokaimura
begins operating by then, JNC will have no place to store Fugen's spent
nuclear fuel. That reprocessing plant has been closed since a nuclear
accident occurred there in March 1997.
"Without any place to store the spent fuel, we will be unable to
exchange (Fugen's) fuel," the spokesman said. He added that JNC will
also be unable to resume operating Fugen if it cannot exchange the fuel
next January.
The storage facility was part of Japan's only operating reprocessing
plant until an accident on March 17, 1997 forced it to close. In the
accident a fire and subsequent explosion exposed 37 staff to radiation.
This year Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission declared the facility safe,
and JNC had only to gain the approval of the local governments - Ibaraki
prefecture and Tokaimura.
Located in Tsuruga on the Japan Sea coast, Fugen's own storage pool is
already full, the JNC spokesman said.
Fugen, Japan's only reactor using heavy water as moderator, is designed
to use both uranium and plutonium as fuel.
It provides electricity to Hokuriku Electric Power Co Inc , Chubu
Electric Power Co Inc and Kansai Electric Power Co Inc .
Japan plans to stop operation of the 165,000-kilowatt Fugen in March
2003.
The storage of spent nuclear fuel is a looming problem for Japan's power
industry as storage capacity is being stretched to the limit at many of
the individual power plants.
JNC's facility is Japan's only spent fuel storage facility until Japan
Nuclear Fuel Ltd (JNFL) opens one in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture,
northern Japan.
When that storage facility may open remains uncertain due to a delay in
the startup of the company's nuclear fuel reprocessing plant by two and
a half years to July 2005.
