Today, President Kenji Kudo held a monthly press conference in Aomori City and talked about "Status of response to the New Regulatory Requirements" and "Progress toward the establishment of the Spent Fuel Reprocessing Organization"

Status of Response to the New Regulatory Requirements

In the review meeting held on June 29, JNFL explained response procedures in case of a series of accidents at the Reprocessing Plant’s buildings.  With regard to seismic resistance, the review meeting held on July 22 determined that JNFL made “generally appropriate considerations” against tsunami.

As for the Uranium Enrichment Plant, JNFL explained, in the review meeting held on July 14, the additional installation of a building for storing waste to be generated in relation to the introduction of the new centrifugal separator.  In the review meeting scheduled for July 29, JNFL will provide response to past comments, as well as explaining how to define and assess design-basis accidents and events that could lead to a severe accident.  This will cover all of the items JNFL has planned to provide explanation for.

The amendment to the application for business modification permit, which JNFL had planned to file this month, will be submitted as soon as preparation work is completed.

There have been steady progress with reviews on various facilities, including the review on the waste management facility on July 8.

With regard to safety improvement tasks associated with the New Regulatory Requirements, JNFL has carried out foundation work for installing protective steel nets on outdoor safety coolant facilities in preparedness for tornadoes, and is now working on tasks that can be commenced in advance, such as drilling for water tank and fuel storage tanks.

Internal reference materials concerning the completion timing, used in the review meeting on June 29, were posted on the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s website for a short time due to JNFL’s mistake.

This caused misunderstanding among those who visited the website at the time, and generated serious concerns to relevant authorities and local residents.  JNFL wishes to offer its sincere apology and pledges to implement recurrence-prevention measures.

JNFL will continue to make all-out efforts for each of the reviews, and prioritize safety in any engineering work so as to achieve completion in the first half of the Japanese fiscal year.

Progress Toward the Establishment of the Spent Fuel Reprocessing Organization

On July 1, the presidents of  nine electric utilities in Japan that operate the nuclear power businesses and Japan Atomic Power Company formed a founding group in preparation for the establishment of the Spent Fuel Reprocessing Organization.  It was tentatively decided on July 15 that the Organization will be based in Aomori City, with a liaison office to be set up in Rokkasho Village.

The decision reflects comprehensive assessment of conditions from various perspectives, including the fact that local people have made emotional sacrifices in coming to accept and support the Nuclear Fuel Cycle facilities.

To become a company that the Organization can have full confidence in, JNFL is steadily implementing initiatives for management structural reforms, e.g. strengthening the Board of Directors and restructuring the corporate organization.

JNFL will continue to make all-out efforts toward the establishment of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle businesses.