Mutsu City in Japan agrees to study receiving fuel from other companies at interim spent fuel storage facility

On August 7, Mutsu City in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, notified Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO Holdings) and Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) that it agreed to allow the two companies to study a plan to receive spent nuclear fuel from other electric power companies at the local interim spent fuel storage facility.

The facility, promoted and constructed by entities related to the two companies, is the only facility in Japan located outside nuclear power plant sites for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel. Under the current arrangement, the facility only accepts spent nuclear fuel from TEPCO Holdings and JAPC, and spent nuclear fuel from other companies is not permitted to be transported in.

On the same day, Mutsu City Mayor Tomoya Yamamoto met with senior executives of the two companies at City Hall and expressed his hope that the two companies would re-examine relevant plans, including the possibility of receiving spent nuclear fuel from other companies through inter-company cooperation, and submit a revised transport plan.

Previously, the two companies had already submitted requests to the Aomori Prefectural Government and Mutsu City, seeking permission from local authorities to study arrangements for receiving spent nuclear fuel from other companies. According to statistics from the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC), spent fuel pools at nuclear power plants across Japan are on average about 80 percent full, and the issue of insufficient spent nuclear fuel storage space is becoming increasingly prominent.