Two firms show interest in spent nuclear fuel facility

Kansai Electric Power and Tohoku Electric Power have expressed an intention to use an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, people familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The facility currently accepts spent nuclear fuel only from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings and Japan Atomic Power. Securing storage capacity for growing amounts of spent nuclear fuel has become an urgent issue as nuclear reactors resume operations across the country.

Tepco is expected to report the intentions of Kansai Electric and Tohoku Electric to local governments on Friday, but it is uncertain whether they will be allowed to use the facility.

Tepco and Japan Atomic said last December that they wanted to begin considering having the Mutsu facility accept spent fuel from nuclear plants operated by other companies, after they determined that spent fuel from their own plants would fall short of the amount expected to be stored at the facility under initial plans.

After Mutsu Mayor Tomoya Yamamoto gave the go-ahead with the move last month, Tepco and Japan Atomic asked eight other Japanese power firms that operate nuclear plants whether they wanted to use the facility.

But Aomori Gov. Soichiro Miyashita has said that adding companies to the list of nuclear plant operators that use the interim storage facility was “not envisaged under the agreement” with local governments hosting the facility.

Kansai Electric currently stores spent fuel in pools at its Mihama, Oi and Takahama nuclear power plants in Fukui Prefecture. Between 80% and 90% of the pools’ storage capacity is already filled, and the pools are expected to reach maximum capacity between fiscal 2028 and fiscal 2030.

The company plans to build a dry storage facility to secure sufficient capacity for the time being, and begin transporting the spent fuel out of Fukui by the end of 2035.

At Tohoku Electric, spent fuel pools at its Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi Prefecture are expected to reach maximum capacity around November 2028. The company plans to start building a dry storage facility this month and begin operating it in March 2028.

A nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, to which spent fuel stored at the Mutsu facility is eventually expected to be transported, remains under construction and its completion has been repeatedly postponed.