September 30, 2014

Monthly Press Conference


Today, President Kenji Kudo held a monthly press conference in Aomori City and talked about the "Review on Compliance with the New Regulatory Requirements" and "Discussions by the Nuclear Energy Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy".

"Review on Compliance with the New Regulatory Requirements"

  • As already informed, JNFL has submitted the revised version of "Reprocessing Business Licensing Application" to Nuclear Regulation Authority, end of last month. The modifications were made to add and enhance the contents, based on the results verified through findings during the Review Meetings, as well as hearings and consultations with administration bodies.
    JNFL will sequentially revise remaining measures related to severe accidents to be ready for coming Review Meetings.
  • Regretfully, it is practically very difficult to complete all the remaining licensing formalities of the Reprocessing Plant within October. We would like to observe the status of review and the outcome of the nuclear power station review up to the last minute, and decide on the new schedule by the end of October at the latest.

"Discussions by the Nuclear Energy Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy"

  • The Nuclear Energy Subcommittee is currently discussing on the materialization of the Basic Energy Plan. On August 21st and September 16th, the Subcommittee talked over issues regarding the nuclear fuel cycle.
  • The Basic Energy Plan specifies to continue the promotion of the nuclear fuel cycle. It is JNFL’s understanding that the Subcommittee will continue to discuss stable implementation of the nuclear fuel cycle, amid the significant change in the environment surrounding power utilities. Nonetheless, we would like future discussions to take account of the following two points.
  • The first point is to continue the discussions to activate the private sector. The capability of the private sector means the efficiency, mobility and flexibility of business judgments and business administrations. Based on the understanding of the Aomori and Rokkasho regions, we should not forget that nuclear fuel cycle needs to be established with our own responsibility, efforts, means and cohesiveness, and supported by JNFL’s sincere spirit.
  • The second point is that the discussions should show respect to the emotions of the local people. With regard to the nuclear fuel cycle business, the Federation of Electric Power Companies requested in 1984 for the establishment of three facilities, namely, reprocessing plant, uranium enrichment plant, and low level radioactive waste storage facility, in Rokkasho Village, Aomori. On the following year, basic agreement related to the acceptance of these facilities was concluded and now it has a history of around 30 years. Although Rokkasho village and Aomori prefecture accepted these facilities with great difficulty at the beginning, they have been supporting the nuclear fuel cycle business, a pillar for Japan’s energy policy, ever since. We call for future discussions to sympathize with the longstanding emotions of the local people.