Industry is moving towards a closed-loop domestic nuclear fuel cycle
- By Linton Levy -
According to Reuters, Hokkaido Electric Power Co has begun testing a new nuclear generator. This is a major step in bringing the unit online and to cutting fuel purchases for the utility. Trial operations at the 912-megawatt Number 3 nuclear generator at its Tomari plant on Japan's northernmost island are scheduled to start in March 2009, with commercial operations set for December 2009, the power firm said in a statement.
The average nuclear power plant utilization rate at Japan's 10 nuclear power companies was only 58.0 percent in 2008, hit by the indefinite shutdown of Tokyo Electric Power Co's. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant after an earthquake in July of 2007. Last April, Hokkaido Electric applied for a license to use reprocessed atomic fuel at the Number 3 unit.
Japan's power industry is moving towards a closed-loop domestic nuclear fuel cycle where it recycles its own spent fuel and then burns recovered uranium and plutonium as mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. Hokkaido Electric also has two other nuclear generators at the Tomari plant, each with a total capacity of 579 MW.