"Status of present activities at the reprocessing plant"

• The removal of residual material within the A-line melter that started on the 29th of last month has been successful, and is expected to complete before the end of the year if all goes smoothly. After the turn of the year, the installation of the temperature gauges in the B-line melter will be performed.

"Report on the improvement of the glass melter operating method"

• The report on the improvement of the glass melter operating method was found to be appropriate by the national government on the 10th of this month and was notified to Aomori Prefecture and Rokkasho-mura on the 13th, and explained to the members of the Aomori Prefectural Assembly on the 17th.
• We will appropriately treat the opinions we have received in this process and perform upcoming testing carefully, based on "Safety First" spirit.
• As for the notification to prefectural residents requested by the prefectural government, we will explain our position in the major 3 local newspapers on 23rd of this month, titled "Future activities toward the completion of the reprocessing plant".

"Looking back on this year,"

• We caused prefectural residents anxiety over our reprocessing business, since its completion was postponed by two years. At present, however, the work within the vitrification cell is going smoothly for the most part. The "Results on the improvement of the glass melter operating method" was found to be appropriate by the national government. We think that this year, we were able to gain the prospective of completion.
• What was particularly impressive this year was that we were successful in recovering the fallen bricks (June 17). Although it took a lot of time, we were able to establish our own technology as a result of developing a new jig and working hard with patience. This lead to confidence among many of our employees and made us feel happy.
• After ten years from our announcement of being an operating body of the MOX business, we were very happy about obtaining the business license in May and starting the construction in October. We think that we were able to take another step ahead toward establishing the nuclear fuel cycle.
• As for the enrichment business, we saw steady progress toward starting operation in September next year as we have started assembling centrifugal systems of a new type on our own.
• The Low Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Center has operated smooth and steady. We also saw significant progress in our waste management business. Aomori prefecture and Rokkasho-mura gave us a go sign for receiving waste newly returned from overseas, which made it possible for us to file an application for business alteration with the national government.
• In addition, we were able to realize a massive capital increase of 400 billion yen with the cooperation of electric power companies, which was very significant for us to strengthen our financial ground.
• Next year, we need to take further steps ahead. It will be a very important year for us to build a foundation toward completion by appropriately performing prior verification testing on the glass melter at our reprocessing plant. We will also move into the real part of introducing the new centrifugal systems at the uranium enrichment plant.
• The construction of the MOX fuel plat will shift into full swing. We would like to make the next year a "year of breakthrough".

"Nuclear Maintenance Business Opportunity Fair"

We have only a few days to go this year. I thank you very much for your support and understanding. I hope this will continue into the next year.