Mayor Told 2 More Biz Interested in Spent N-Fuel Storage

On September 18th, the mayor of Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, was informed that Kansai Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co. are interested in utilizing an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in the northeastern city. The news came during a meeting between Mayor Tomoya Yamamoto and representatives from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc., Japan Atomic Power Co., and the facility's joint venture partners.

The interim storage facility, currently managed by a collaboration between TEPCO and Japan Atomic Power, is designed to house spent nuclear fuel from the two companies' reactors. In December of last year, TEPCO and Japan Atomic Power informed the Aomori and Mutsu governments that the companies were contemplating partnerships with other businesses to accept fuel from them, as their fuel alone would not be sufficient to reach the planned final storage capacity of 5,000 tons.

Following Mayor Yamamoto's approval of the plan last month, Kansai Electric Power and Tohoku Electric Power reached out to eight additional power companies with nuclear power plants to gauge their interest in joining the project.