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Japan does fuel reprocessing for its nuclear reactors, my understanding is that this allows them to just not need to import any more uranium. I believe there is
by rtpg 3y ago
Japan does fuel reprocessing for its nuclear reactors, my understanding is that this allows them to just not need to import any more uranium. I believe there is still some waste product at the end of all of this, but it is a very manageable amount of it? That's my understanding at least.
- stephenr 3y agoNot because they want to. Japan is what you or I might call "seismically active", so picking a place that's going to be secure for 100K years is even harder than other places. They determined in the 90's that MOX reprocessing costs 4x what it would cost to bury the stuff.. by 2017 the price had quadrupled again from the '94 cost.
- rtpg 3y agoMy understanding is the reprocessing is more about trying to recover uranium and have a somewhat closed cycle rather than constantly try and import uranium from mines? But my understanding is limited
- stephenr 3y agoI'm not an expert but my understanding is that MOX reprocessing does produce usable fuel, yes - but the point I was highlighting is that it's ridiculously expensive to do so.
- fomine3 3y agoJapan has never had nuclear final repository for obvious NIMBY and anti nuclear reason. Nuclear fuel cycle has been considered to the way to process nuclear "waste" in nuclear strategy. Fast reactor wasn't a thing but people thought it will be made in the future. Saving fuel is an another reason of course. Japan's fast reactor Monju is failed and there's no realistic plan to have a new one. Other western countries' projects had stopped. The cycle is now almost broken, but govt still need to say that it's in progress because it's terrible to say that we run nuclear plants but we don't have repository.