Japan to Restart Regulatory Checks on N-Fuel Recycling Facility

Tokyo, April 4 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority is set to restart its screenings of a nuclear fuel recycling facility in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, after a hiatus since last October that followed a series of problems, including rainwater leaks, it was learned Wednesday. At a regular meeting of the NRA on the day, Kenji Kudo, president of Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., the facility's operator, expressed the company's readiness to take procedures to get NRA screenings resumed, with the aim of restarting operations at the spent fuel reprocessing plant. "We're steadily proceeding with improvement work," Kudo said. He reported that the operator has finished checks on equipment crucial to the plant's safety and is now working to strengthen its maintenance division. During the meeting, NRA members questioned whether the operator's measures have been adequate following the problems but raised no objection to the restart of the screenings of the Rokkasho facility. NRA Chairman Toyoshi Fuketa warned that Japan Nuclear Fuel's capacity will be called into question if problems continue to occur at the facility. At the Rokkasho facility last August, rainwater leaked into a building containing an emergency diesel power generator, due to poor maintenance. In October, the NRA deemed inadequate maintenance and other flaws to be violations of safety regulations. END