Aomori to Reject New N-Fuel Shipments; 27th Delay of Plant Construction Cited as Reason

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:45 JST, March 28, 2026

AOMORI — Aomori Prefecture plans to refuse new shipments of spent nuclear fuel in fiscal 2026, according to prefectural government sources.

The decision was made after the completion date of a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho in the prefecture was pushed back for the 27th time.

The prefectural government has conveyed its decision to the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. and Japan Atomic Power Co., the sources said.

The decision not to accept any more spent fuel will likely affect the planned delivery of 60 tons of fuel to a storage site in Mutsu in the prefecture.

The site, which began operations in November 2024, is the nation’s only temporary storage site for spent nuclear fuel not on the premises of a nuclear power plant.

The current plan for spent nuclear fuel stored at the site is to reprocess it at the Rokkasho facility, which is being built by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL), with 36 tons of the fuel having already been brought to the temporary storage facility.

The prefecture has no plans to request the removal of fuel that has already been delivered, but a senior official of the prefectural government said, “Progress toward the reprocessing plant’s completion has not proceeded as planned, so the premise for bringing fuel into the temporary storage facility has been lost.”

Completion of the plant has been pushed back 27 times, with the current end date slated for fiscal 2026. However, safety screenings by the Nuclear Regulation Authority are ongoing, and JNFL has yet to complete its briefing process.

Under an agreement with the economy, trade and industry minister, Aomori Gov. Soichiro Miyashita decides annually whether the prefecture will accept new shipments of spent nuclear fuel.