This week, it was announced one after another that the completion of the core facilities in the "nuclear fuel cycle", which uses plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants as fuel, will be postponed.
If the facilities do not move, there is a risk that there will be no recipients of the spent fuel that accumulates at nuclear power plants nationwide, so experts point out that it is necessary to secure storage facilities if we are to proceed with the restart.
Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. announced on the 9th that the Oma Nuclear Power Plant under construction in Oma Town, Aomori Prefecture, will be postponed to fiscal 2030 due to the ongoing review by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.
The Oma Nuclear Power Plant is designed to operate solely on MOX fuel mixed with plutonium extracted from the spent fuel of the nuclear power plant, and is expected to play an important role in the nuclear fuel cycle. .
In addition, on the 7th of this month, the completion date of the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, which will extract plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, was postponed due to the same reason of continuing the review.
The postponement is the 26th, and the operator, Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., has not indicated a new completion time target.
With reprocessing plants not operating, spent fuel continues to pile up at nuclear power plants across the country, and some have already approached 90% of the amount that can be stored.
Tatsujiro Suzuki, a professor at Nagasaki University who is familiar with the nuclear fuel cycle, said, "A 26-time postponement is not a normal project, and the 'nuclear fuel cycle policy' needs to be reviewed. As a practical matter, there will be no place to take the spent fuel. If the government is to proceed with the restart, it will be necessary to secure storage facilities as well."