nuclear-news

Confusion in Aomori Prefecture about importing radioactive waste

Aomori Pref. mulling rejecting nuclear waste The Yomiuri Shimbun , 6 Sept 12, AOMORI—The Aomori prefectural government is considering refusing to accept highly radioactive waste scheduled to be returned from reprocessing overseas if the central government abolishes its nuclear fuel cycle policy.

The prefectural government was likely prompted to act by recent moves by the central government toward abandoning nuclear power generation.

The village of Rokkasho in the prefecture is home to a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant that is considered to be the foundation of the nuclear fuel cycle, in which plutonium and uranium are extracted from spent fuel to be reused.

The plant has yet to begin operating, and spent nuclear fuel from the nation’s nuclear reactors are currently stored at nuclear power plants or at the Rokkasho facility. Some spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed in France and Britain. Vitrified radioactive waste, the highly radioactive waste that is produced in the reprocessing process, has been shipped from Europe to the Vitrified Waste Storage Center at the Rokkasho facility. So far, the plant has received 1,414 containers of vitrified waste, and 28 more are scheduled to be shipped from Britain in October at the earliest.

According to senior prefectural officials, if the central government
abandons its nuclear fuel cycle policy, the prefecture does not need
to accept any more “nuclear garbage.” Therefore, the prefectural
government is considering measures such as refusing to allow ships
carrying vitrified waste to dock at the plant or sending back the
spent nuclear fuel the facility currently stores to the domestic
plants it came from.

The facility has so far accepted about 3,000 tons of spent nuclear
fuel and the facility’s fuel storage pools are almost filled to
capacity.

If all the nation’s nuclear power plants are shut down, there will
likely be no need for the reprocessing plant.

“If the government drastically changes its nuclear fuel cycle policy,
it will have an enormous impact. It may even affect the fate of the
village,” Rokkasho Mayor Kenji Furukawa said in a speech at the
village assembly Tuesday……
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120905003839.htm

September 6, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | - plutonium, Japan, reprocessing