TEPCO and JAPC invite eight power companies to participate in spent fuel transport

August 12 news, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) invited eight other Japanese power companies that own nuclear power plants on the 10th to consider participating in the transport of spent fuel to the Mutsu City interim storage facility in Aomori Prefecture. Mutsu City has agreed to expand the scope of operating entities involved in the transport.

The interim storage facility is operated by Recyclable-Fuel Storage Company (RFS), jointly established by TEPCO and JAPC, and is primarily used for temporary storage of spent fuel generated from nuclear power plants before reprocessing.

The eight invited companies are Hokkaido Electric Power Company, Tohoku Electric Power Company, Chubu Electric Power Company, Hokuriku Electric Power Company, Kansai Electric Power Company, Chugoku Electric Power Company, Shikoku Electric Power Company, and Kyushu Electric Power Company.

In December last year, TEPCO and JAPC informed Mutsu City that, as the amount of spent fuel the two companies could transport to the facility on their own would not reach the initially planned scale, they intended to introduce other power companies through an "inter-operator cooperation" approach. On August 7, Mutsu City Mayor Yamamoto Tomoya stated that approval would be granted for companies other than TEPCO and JAPC to participate in spent fuel transport.

Mutsu City had previously required the receipt of all 5,000 tons of spent fuel as planned, and took into consideration the nuclear fuel tax that RFS is required to pay. In contrast, the proposal put forward by TEPCO and others last year estimated that spent fuel transported from facilities such as TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station and JAPC's Tokai Daini Nuclear Power Station would be at most 4,500 tons.