Gov't to co-develop improved radioactive waste disposal furnace

TOKYO, Jan. 31 Kyodo -
The industry ministry and Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. have decided to jointly
develop an improved model of a radioactive waste disposal furnace at a spent
nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture for introduction possibly
in the fiscal year ending March 2013, ministry sources said Saturday.
The cost of development is expected to exceed 14 billion yen, of which the
government will provide financial assistance of some 7 billion yen, they said.
The decision was made because the melting furnace at the plant in the town of
Rokkasho has had technical problems, causing the plant to extend the completion
of its trial period to August.
Under the plan, the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and the plant's
operator will improve the structure of the melting furnace to prevent
platinum-group metals from accumulating on the bottom of the melting furnace.
In the current model of the furnace, platinum-group metals easily accumulate at
the floor of the furnace, making it difficult to produce vitrified waste.
At the plant, Japan Nuclear Fuel has been producing vitrified waste, which is
later buried underground, by mixing high-level radioactive liquid waste with
glass raw materials in the melting furnace.
Plutonium is extracted in the course of reprocessing at the reprocessing plant
for spent nuclear fuels produced at nuclear power reactors across the country.
==Kyodo
2009-01-31 22:13:51