Seeking a society without nuclear power generation: Japan should stop nuclear fuel cycle policy

[kristopher]

Seeking a society without nuclear power generation: Japan should stop nuclear fuel cycle policy
2011/07/16
This is the third of a five-part editorial series proposing ways for Japan to achieve a society that does not depend on nuclear power generation for its energy supply.

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Since Japan's first commercial nuclear power plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, started commercial operations in 1966, the country has been producing and accumulating large quantities of spent nuclear fuel.

From now on, even if Japan goes ahead with a policy to break with nuclear power generation, as long as there are operating nuclear power plants, it will continue to produce spent nuclear fuel, which is high-level radioactive waste. How should it be disposed of?

The policy to recycle spent nuclear fuel greatly affects the disposal of nuclear waste. It is the system to extract plutonium by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel and use it again as fuel in fast-breeder reactors (FBR).

However, prospects for the operations of two facilities that are pivotal in the nuclear fuel cycle remain uncertain despite the fact that a huge amount of money has been spent on them.

The Rokkasho reprocessing ...

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201107150355.html