Overview

A total of 54 reactors are normally in operation, run by the Japan Atomic Power Company and 9 independent electricity companies. The Monju fast-breeder, site of a major accident involving loss of the sodium coolant in December 1995, is currently shut down. The Fugen reactor, an experimental advanced thermal reactor (ATR) which used natural uranium fuel, was shutdown in March 2003, and decommissioning has begun. Between September 2002 and April 2003 TEPCO had closed all 17 of its reactors due to evidence of systematic falsification of safety records, opening them again during 2004. Following the major earthquake in 2007, more were closed for safety checks and have yet to restart....

Management of L/ILW
By 1992 some 470,000 barrels of LLW had accumulated at NPP's in Japan. In order to manage this huge volume, a disposal facility was developed at Rokkasho-mura Aomori Prefecture (north of the main island) by Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL). The Rokkasho-mura repository began operations in December 1992.......

Management of HLW/Spent Fuel
Current Japanese policy includes reprocessing of spent fuel and utilisation of the plutonium and enriched uranium, including the development of a MoX (Mixed-Oxide) fuel fabrication capability. In the past spent fuel has been reprocessed abroad, although an experimental reprocessing facility was in operation at PNC’s Tokai Works until March 1997, when there was an explosion and fire.

A commercial-scale facility is under construction at Rokkasho-mura....

The Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) merged with JNC on 1st October 2005. The new organisation is known as the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA).

 

The latest description of Japanese plans for management and disposal of HLW and spent nuclear fuel is to be found in the Long-Term Plan as published by AEC in .........

Repository Site Selection

Originally, disposal in Japan was proposed to take place in 4 stages:

In September 2001 NuMo published details of the siting methodology it would follow, which consists of a ‘step-wise’ process involving.......

According to the Law, NuMo must carry out investigations in potential candidate areas identified by means of an ‘Open Solicitation’ designed to encourage communities to volunteer for involvement. The call for volunteers was published on 19th December 2002.....

In January 2007 METI announced that the amounts of money available to communities that consider volunteering for a disposal facility will be increased from.........

An underground experimental facility, in sedimentary rocks, is to be constructed at Horonobe on Hokkaido.....

 

An experimental research shaft has been in operation since 1986, some 150m deep, in the Tono area in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan, in an undeveloped uranium deposit in sandstone overlying crystalline granitic rocks.

A new underground facility was approved for development in the same area as Tono, at Mizunami, in December 1995.....

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