The Japan Atomic Energy Agency said Monday it plans to close its nuclear fuel reprocessing plant north of Tokyo because it is too expensive to upgrade the facility to satisfy stricter regulations made after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Kyodo reported.
This is the first nuclear facility in Japan to close because of the new regulations. Many old reactors are also considered too expensive to revamp, but no utilities have so far said they are mulling closing any of them.
The fuel processing plant, owned and operated by the government-funded JAEA, is located in the village of Tokai in Ibaraki Prefecture. It started operations in 1981 as Japan's first plant to process spent fuel into in forms that can be handled relatively easily as nuclear waste. It would take more than Y100 billion ($911 million) to enhance its safety to continue operations, a spokesman for the agency said.
The first half of the process, in which spent fuel is minced and made into solution, will be shut soon, while the second half where the solutions are treated will continue operation for about next 20 years in order to treat spent fuel solution currently held in the facility. The plant also has 110 metric tons of untouched spent fuel. The spokesman said they are likely to be sent overseas for reprocessing.