Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL) (日本原燃 ''Nihon Gennen'') is a nuclear energy company based in
Rokkasho,
Aomori Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the eas ...
,
Japan involved in the production of
nuclear fuel, as well as the
reprocessing, storage and disposal of
nuclear waste
Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons ...
. The mission of Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited is to establish a
nuclear fuel cycle
The nuclear fuel cycle, also called nuclear fuel chain, is the progression of nuclear fuel through a series of differing stages. It consists of steps in the ''front end'', which are the preparation of the fuel, steps in the ''service period'' in w ...
infrastructure in
Japan.
In
uranium enrichment
Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 ...
JNFL plans to provide for an ultimate capacity of 1,500 ton-
SWU/year, enough to meet one third of the nuclear fuel needs of all nuclear power plants in Japan. The first generation Uranium Enrichment Plant in
Rokkasho, Aomori operated 1992 to 2010 with a capacity of up to 1,050 ton-SWU/year, which is equivalent to the nuclear fuel used by 8 or 9 reactors at 1,000 MW-class nuclear plants.
A second generation plant using
centrifuges
A centrifuge is a device that uses centrifugal force to separate various components of a fluid. This is achieved by spinning the fluid at high speed within a container, thereby separating fluids of different densities (e.g. cream from milk) or l ...
with composite carbon-fibre rotors started operating in 2011.
Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant
The is a nuclear reprocessing plant with an annual capacity of 800 tons of uranium or 8 tons of plutonium. It is owned by Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL) and is part of the Rokkasho complex located in the village of Rokkasho in northeast Ao ...
, Japan's first commercial reprocessing plant, began reprocessing in 2007, however complications have delayed full commercial operation until 2012. The plant has a design reprocessing capacity of 800 tonnes-U/year, enough to reprocess the spent fuel
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor a ...
produced by 30 reactors at 1,000 MW-class nuclear power stations, though full capacity has yet to be realized. Responding to a December 1998 request from The Federation of Electric Power Companies, JNFL has been conducting technological studies regarding MOX fuel
Mixed oxide fuel, commonly referred to as MOX fuel, is nuclear fuel that contains more than one oxide of fissile material, usually consisting of plutonium blended with natural uranium, reprocessed uranium, or depleted uranium. MOX fuel is an al ...
fabrication technology. According to the current plan, Japanese electric power companies will be implementing Plutonium-Thermal utilization (MOX) with 16 to 18 of the nuclear reactors operating in Japan. In late October 2010, work formally got under way on a 130 tonne/year J-MOX fuel fabrication plant, which is located on the same site as the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant.[
]
JNFL also operates low and high level nuclear waste long-term storage facilities which will accommodate 2,880 canisters of vitrified high level waste and the ultimate capacity of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Center now under construction will be 600,000 m3.
See also
*Nuclear power in Japan
Prior to the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Japan had generated 30% of its electrical power from nuclear reactors and planned to increase that share to 40%. Nuclear power energy was a national strategic priority in Japan.
, of the 54 nu ...
References
External links
Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd
{{Authority control
Energy companies of Japan
Nuclear fuel companies
Nuclear technology companies of Japan
Companies based in Aomori Prefecture
Rokkasho, Aomori