Oil, coal, natural gas, uranium. These are the energy sources that sustain and support the daily activities of our lives as well as our economies. Yet these resources will only be available for a limited number of years.
Uranium ore is processed into fuel to be burned in nuclear reactors; once the fuel is spent and reprocessed, the residual unburnt uranium and another fissile by-product, plutonium is extracted for use once again. This process is known as the "closed" nuclear fuel cycle and has been adopted by a number of countries, the United Kingdom and France among them. Some 97% of spent fuel can be re-used, with a portion converted back into fuel. Uranium's recyclability therefore makes it a semi-domestic' energy source for resource-poor Japan. The attraction for Japan to institute a nuclear fuel cycle is obvious: the country must rely on imports for about 80 percent of its primary energy needs, including almost 100 percent of its oil. And as the world's second-largest economy, Japan's consumption of energy, especially electricity, continues to rise.
Up to now, Japan has had to rely on countries like the U.K. and France to reprocess most of the spent fuel it produced. The rest has been handled by the Tokai Reprocessing Plant, located in Ibaraki Prefecture, 120 kilometers from Tokyo. Since commencing pilot operations in September 1977, the Tokai plant owned and operated by the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) has reprocessed, as of March 2003, some 1,009 tons of uranium spent fuel.
To place Japan's nuclear fuel cycle on firmer footing, however, additional reprocessing capacity is a must. Thus, construction is nearing completion at the new nuclear fuel cycle facilities located in Rokkasho Village in the northern prefecture of Aomori. More information is available on these in the Fuel Cycle Facilities section.
Efforts are currently underway in Japan to help our society evolve from the mass production/mass consumption/mass disposal model to a reduce/re-use/recycle model, and thereby create a "recycling-based society" that puts little load on the environment. The electric utility industry has been voluntarily working toward the realization of such a recycling-based society.
The "closed" nuclear fuel cycle is also consistent with the concept of the recycling-based society. The reprocessing technology involves recovering useful uranium and plutonium from spent fuel and efficiently sorting out the remaining waste material. This technology will improve nuclear power generation, which is already advantageous for supply stability, and will further enhance its environmental suitability.
Due to the current energy policy in Japan which dictates that there should be no excess supplies of plutonium, and to foster technology to use plutonium in the future when uranium becomes scarce, the industry is promoting its "Plu-thermal" plan. In this technology, plutonium recovered from spent fuel will be used as MOX fuel (a mixture of uranium and plutonium) in existing light water reactors. The industry is working to gain public understanding of this plan to enable its progress. For more information on this program please see our Japan's MOX Program section.
In order to attain national energy security and address global environmental problems, Japan must make steady efforts to further develop its nuclear power. Thus, the country should establish an independent domestic nuclear fuel cycle in which spent fuel can be recycled so as to secure uranium resources, a long-term economical and dependable energy source.
