Rokkasho reprocessing plant

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Rokkasho reprocessing plant

The Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant located in Rokkasho , a village in kamikita district of the Japanese prefecture of Aomori .

Rokkasho is the site of a nuclear power industry center in Japan for the fuel cycle , which by the Nihon Gennen KK ( English Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited , JNFL) is operated.

The following facilities are located on the site:

  • JNFL headquarters
  • a uranium enrichment plant ( ウ ラ ン 濃縮 工場 uran nōshuku kōjō ) with centrifuge technology (since 1992)
  • a near-surface repository (since 1992)
  • a reprocessing plant ( 六 ヶ 所 再 処理 工場 Rokkasho saishori kōjō ) for fuel elements from light water reactors (since 2010)
  • the prototype of a linear accelerator (under construction) for the international IFMIF project

The entire facility extends over an area of ​​3.8 million m² along the western shore of Lake Obuchi-numa and consists of 38 buildings (as of June 2010).

On October 28, 2010, the construction of a plant for the production of MOX fuel elements began.

Uranium enrichment plant

A commercial enrichment plant has been built in Rokkasho and is operated by JNFI (Japan Nuclear Fuel Industry Corporation). The enrichment takes place with the help of the centrifuge technique. The first module with a capacity of 150 tons of uranium separation work (UTA) per year went into operation in 1992, and another module should follow each year. By September 1999, 1050 t UTA / a had been installed. In the final stage, the plant should have a capacity of 1500 t UTA / a. The technology of the plant is based on the experience gained with a pilot plant (75 t UTA / a; in operation since 1982) and a prototype plant (200 t UTA / a; in operation since 1989) in Ningyo-toge in Kagamino .

Reprocessing plant

In 1984, JNFS (Japan Nuclear Fuel Services) received the construction permit for a commercial reprocessing plant in Rokkasho. The capacity is 800 tons of heavy metal (t SM) per year. The facility is completed. The incoming warehouse was put into operation in 1997. The start of the reprocessing operation was planned for the end of 2005, the commercial operation should start in July 2006, but has been postponed. In total, around 32,000 t of spent fuel elements are to be reprocessed over a period of 40 years .

The following important information is missing from this article or section:
Did that work with the planned start of the reprocessing operation? - Flominator 1:35 p.m. , Feb. 6, 2012 (CET)
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Repository

A near-surface repository for low-level radioactive waste was built on the site of the Rokkasho Center and put into operation in December 1992. The capacity of the first stage of the repository was 200,000 barrels (corresponding to a volume of 40,000 m³). In the meantime, the capacity has been doubled to 400,000 barrels (corresponding to a volume of 80,000 m³) by building a second unit. By the end of March 2003 around 150,000 barrels (30,000 m³) had already been stored. The storage area is divided into 8 groups of 5000 m³ each, each group consisting of five concrete cavities. This is expected to be sufficient by the beginning of the next decade. The location conditions allow a further expansion of the capacity to up to 600,000 m³ (3 million barrels).

The barrels are stacked in large concrete- lined chambers. The gaps are filled with concrete and the filled chamber is covered with a layer of concrete, so that a monolithic block results. This is covered with a thick layer of earth.

2011 earthquake

On March 11, 2011, due to the severe Tōhoku earthquake in 2011, the plant had to switch its power supply to diesel-powered emergency generators. According to experts, the units are “not designed to run over the long term”. Power was restored on March 14, 2011.

On April 7, 2011, after an aftershock of magnitude 7.1, it had to be cooled again with diesel-powered emergency generators. The power supply was restored the following day.

Web links

Commons : Rokkasho  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Olli J. Heinonen: Safeguards in action: IAEA at Rokkasho, Japan. (PDF) IAEA, June 2010, p. 3 , accessed on May 8, 2011 (English).
  2. ^ MOX Fuel Fabrication Plant. Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited, accessed May 8, 2011 .
  3. ↑ Radioactivity in Japanese nuclear power plant increases dramatically . Welt online , March 11, 2011
  4. ↑ Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors. In: NYTimes.com. Retrieved February 27, 2012 .
  5. ↑ spreadnews.de April 8, 2011
  6. ↑ Greater Danger Lies in Spent Fuel Than in Reactors. In: NYTimes.com. Retrieved February 27, 2012 .

Coordinates: 40 ° 57 ′ 22.9 ″  N , 141 ° 19 ′ 28.1 ″  E