Japan FY '24 N-Fuel Reprocessing Costs Hit Record 15 T. Yen

   Aomori, June 23 (Jiji Press)--Japan's costs related to spent nuclear fuel reprocessing hit a record 15.62 trillion yen in fiscal 2024, up 530 billion yen from the previous year, a state-authorized organization said Monday.
   "The costs are necessary" for Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. to complete its project to build a spent fuel reprocessing plant as planned and operate it safely, said Hiromu Masuda, head of the Nuclear Reprocessing and Decommissioning Facilitation Organization, told a press conference in the northeastern city of Aomori.
   Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel is commissioned by the organization to Japan Nuclear Fuel. But the completion of Japan Nuclear Fuel's reprocessing plant under construction in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, has been delayed repeatedly.
   The rise in the spent fuel reprocessing-related costs is attributed to higher expenses for complying with new regulatory standards and increased costs for maintenance due to a delay in the planned completion of the reprocessing plant to fiscal 2026.
   The Nuclear Reprocessing and Decommissioning Facilitation Organization also said that its costs related to the operations of Japan Nuclear Fuel's plant in Rokkasho to process uranium-plutonium mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel rose about 170 billion yen to 2.6 trillion yen, also a record high.

(2025/06/23-23:07)