Aomori Municipalities Ink N-fuel Storage Safety Deal

Jiji Press

17:23 JST, August 21, 2024

AOMORI (Jiji Press) — Five municipalities in Aomori Prefecture and the operator of a temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the prefecture signed a safety agreement Tuesday.

The signing of the pact between the five municipalities — the towns of Yokohama and Oma and the villages of Higashidori, Kazamaura and Sai — and Recyclable-Fuel Storage Co., or RFS, is a prerequisite for launching the operations of the facility in the city of Mutsu. The five towns and villages each border Mutsu.

The facility will store spent fuel from nuclear power stations until it is reprocessed. It is the first such facility in Japan.

The first batch of spent nuclear fuel is expected to be transported to the facility in September.

The safety deal made it possible for the facility to take delivery of spent nuclear fuel, RFS President Yasunari Takahashi told a news conference after a signing ceremony in the city of Aomori.

On Aug. 9, the Aomori prefectural government, the Mutsu municipal government and RFS concluded a safety agreement. The three-way deal calls on RFS to inform the prefectural and city governments of its spent nuclear fuel transportation plan at least two weeks in advance.

RFS will first accept spent nuclear fuel from the No. 4 reactor of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture and conduct a final screening to ensure safe storage.

The facility will become available if there are no problems in the subsequent checkup by the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

Those safety agreements are designed to ensure the safety of local residents and preserve the environment.

The agreement between the five municipalities and RFS calls on the company to make reports to the municipalities on its operations as they do to the prefectural and Mutsu city governments.