Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said a mixed oxide, or MOX, nuclear fuel processing plant in Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, has 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.
The MOX fuel plant in the village of Rokkasho 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.
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