Japan’s Spent Fuel and Plutonium Management Challenges

Japan’s spent fuel management and fuel cycle programs are now at a critical stage. Its first commercial-scale reprocessing plant, at Rokkasho Village, will soon start full-scale operation.
Japan's commitment to plutonium recycling has been maintained since the introduction of nuclear power to Japan and has been explicitly stated in its Long Term Program since 1956. Under Japan's nuclear regulatory requirements, utilities must submit evidence that their spent fuel will be reprocessed before they load the fuel. They also commit to their local communities to ship spent fuel from the reactor site to reprocessing plants "soon" (without any time period being specified, however). Therefore, there has been no choice for utility companies but to make reprocessing contracts.
Despite the clear cost disadvantage of reprocessing compared with direct disposal or storage of spent fuel, the latest Framework for Nuclear Energy Policy published in November 2005 by Japan's Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) did not change the policy that spent fuel must be reprocessed. The Rokkasho reprocessing plant therefore started active testing on March 31, 2006.