nuclear-news

Japan has no solution to disposing of its nuclear wastes

The country is yet to build a final disposal site for nuclear fuel.

Meanwhile, Katsutaka Idogawa, mayor of the town of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, which hosts the troubled Daiichi plant, criticized the panel for drafting a new atomic energy policy platform before an investigation into the cause of the nuclear crisis is concluded…..

Panel calls for study on direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel,  Mainichi Daily News, 29  Feb 12, Nothing is decided yet but TEPCO told the press at its Tokyo headquarters Wednesday morning that this is one option TEPCO officials are considering to use at the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

TOKYO (Kyodo) — A government panel commissioned to compile the country’s basic atomic energy policy said in its draft nuclear power platform Tuesday that Japan should study the possibility of burying spent nuclear fuel deep underground, instead of the current disposal
method of reprocessing spent fuel.
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency, which is tasked with revising the
country’s Framework for Nuclear Energy Policy last updated in 2005,
pushed for direct fuel disposal in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear
crisis triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

So far, Tokyo has adopted a policy of establishing a nuclear fuel
cycle by reprocessing spent fuel, extracting plutonium for recycling
and using uranium-plutonium mixed oxide fuel in light-water reactors.

In line with the government’s decision to gradually reduce the
nation’s reliance on nuclear energy in the wake of the crisis at the
Fukushima Daiichi power plant, the option of burying spent fuel has
drawn more attention, panel members said.

Direct disposal is also considered less expensive than reprocessing to
recycle plutonium for nuclear fuel.

In the draft platform, the commission requested that the Economy,
Trade and Industry Ministry and the government-linked Japan Atomic
Energy Agency conduct research on the direct disposal method.

Under the current fuel disposal scenario based on a nuclear fuel
cycle, high-level nuclear waste generated in the process of recycling
would be vitrified and buried in the ground. The country is yet to
build a final disposal site for nuclear fuel.

If the direct disposal method is adopted, the spent fuel to be stored
would contain plutonium and require treatment different from
vitrification as well as a larger disposal site.

Meanwhile, Katsutaka Idogawa, mayor of the town of Futaba in Fukushima
Prefecture, which hosts the troubled Daiichi plant, criticized the
panel for drafting a new atomic energy policy platform before an
investigation into the cause of the nuclear crisis is concluded…..
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120229p2g00m0dm057000c.html

February 29, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, wastes