Interim Storage Facility Field Survey

The amount of spent fuel produced by Japanese nuclear power plants will slightly exceed the capacity of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant. Spent fuel is currently stored in storage pools at nuclear power plants; at the present rate, these storage pools will reach capacity in the near future. Therefore there is a need to construct an off-site facility in which spent fuel can be properly stored and managed until it can be reprocessed. In November 2000, Mutsu City, Aomori Prefecture, asked the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to carry out a field survey to examine whether an interim storage facility could be constructed in the city. TEPCO is complying with this request and will begin a one-year field survey in April 2001. TEPCO plans to bring an interim storage facility into operation by around 2010. If 500 spent fuel casks — extremely reliable steel containers capable of safely and hermetically sealing spent fuel, removing heat, shielding radiation and preventing criticality -- are to be stored in this facility, it is estimated that the facility will require a 100,000-square-meter site. Upon completion of the interim storage facility, increased flexibility will be achieved within the entire nuclear fuel cycle.

Conclusions

Japan's nuclear policy is to implement the MOX utilization program; that is, to carry out the application of MOX fuel in light water reactors. Because of the fact that discussions are still under way with the local government, the commercial use of MOX fuel has not yet started. Nevertheless, as mentioned at the outset, Japan, scarce in energy resources, is continuing its policy of establishing a nuclear fuel cycle. The Japanese electricity industry intends to continue its efforts to garner support and understanding from related parties in order to carry out the MOX utilization program in accordance with this policy.

In promoting the use of plutonium, Japan is determined to live by the peaceful use principle in accordance with the Atomic Energy Basic Law, and to act from the principle of not possessing surplus plutonium. Japan is also determined to use plutonium while taking stringent accountancy measures, along with physical protection and containment surveillance measures, including the adoption of the wide-ranging safeguards set forth by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).