The operator of Japan’s first mixed oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel processing, which is currently under construction, has postponed its completion by about two years.
The plant, in the village of Rokkasho in the northern prefecture of Aomori, is a key facility in the country’s plans to close the nuclear fuel cycle by extracting uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel for reuse. It will produce MOX fuel from powders of uranium and plutonium extracted at a spent fuel reprocessing facility being built at the same site.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said earlier this month that the facility had officially passed screenings for the start of operations. The NRA formalised a report stating that the plant, owned by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd, meets new safety standards that Japan introduced after the 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station.
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