N-Fuel Interim Storage on Home Stretch before Operation Begins

   Aomori, July 4 (Jiji Press)--An interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the city of Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, northeastern Japan, is in the final phase of preparations before starting operation.
   With fuel storage pools at nuclear plants across the country already at over 80 pct capacity, the Mutsu facility, the first such storage built outside a nuclear plant site, is expected to play a key role in Japan's efforts to establish a nuclear fuel cycle in which uranium and plutonium are extracted from spent fuel and reprocessed for use at nuclear plants.
   However, many local residents are worried that the site may become a permanent storage facility.
   "'Interim storage' is in name only. We see it as the beginning of a 100,000-year storage," one of the organizers of a gathering for those opposing the Mutsu facility said on June 16, addressing some 130 participants in the event held in the city of Aomori.
   The facility will be run by Recyclable-Fuel Storage Co., jointly owned by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and Japan Atomic Power Co.

(2024/07/04-22:05)

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