Construction of MOX-fuelled reactor suspended after 2011 Fukushima disaster
Representatives from communities near the Ohma nuclear power station in Aomori Prefecture, northern Japan, have urged the government to support the resumption of the plant’s construction, the Tokyo-based Japan Atomic Industry Forum (Jaif) said.
The plant was to be the first commercial power reactor capable of operating solely on plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, which is made from reprocessed plutonium and uranium.
Jaif reported that Nozaki Naofumi, mayor of Ohma Town, said the region had been “impoverished” by the suspension of the plant’s construction in the wake of the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that destroyed the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station.
He asked the government to take “trenchant measures” to restart construction of the plant “as soon as possible.”
After a meeting with officials at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti) in Tokyo, Nozaki told reporters that economy, trade and industry Nakatani Shinichi had told them that the government would try to expedite the resumption of the project. Nozaki said he believed “satisfactory results could be expected”.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, construction of the Ohma plant, a 1,325-MW advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR), began in May 2010, less than 12 months before the Fukushima disaster.
In 2018, plant owner Electric Power Development Company, or J-Power, said construction was being pushed back for the third time due to prolonged safety checks.
J-Power, had been planning to begin construction of major facilities at the plant in the latter half of 2018.
At the time J-Power said it hoped to start construction of the reactor and related facilities in the latter half of 2020 and complete it by the second half of 2025.
J-Power initially sought to start commercial operation of the plant in fiscal 2021, but put it back by one year in 2015 and postponed it to fiscal 2024 in 2016.
