Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited
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Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL) (日本原燃 Nihon Gennen) is a nuclear power company involved in the production of nuclear fuel, as well as the reprocessing, storage and disposal of nuclear waste. The mission of Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited is to establish a nuclear fuel cycle infrastructure in Japan.
In Uranium Enrichment 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 nuclear power plants in Japan. Currently, the Uranium Enrichment Plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, is operating with a capacity of 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.
Construction of Japan's first commercial reprocessing plant is in progress in Rokkasho which will have a design reprocessing capacity of 800 ton-U/year, enough to reprocess the spent fuel produced by 30 reactors at 1,000 MW-class nuclear power stations. Responding to a December 1998 request from The Federation of Electric Power Companies, JNFL has been conducting technological studies regarding MOX fuel 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.
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.
