Japan: Participation in US Fast Reactor Project: US TerraPower
-Cooperation with Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, etc.-
US TerraPower
US Department of Energy
Japan Atomic Energy Agency and others will participate in the “Development Plan of US TerraPower and US Department of Energy”.
“Mr. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft in the United States” will invest.
Japan Atomic Energy Agency
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
“Japan Atomic Energy Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries” will cooperate.
On January 1, it was revealed that Japan would participate in the US fast reactor development project.
Stakeholders from Japan and the United States will exchange a memorandum of understanding for cooperation and squeeze specific details.
Fast Reactor Planning:
Fast reactors are an important facility for the’nuclear fuel cycle policy’of reusing spent nuclear fuel.
Japan aims to acquire the latest technology.
Regarding fast reactors, there are high hurdles to commercialization, such as “major western countries freeze development.”
US TerraPower:
TerraPower will build a fast reactor in Wyoming with the aim of starting operation in 2028.
The output of the fast reactor is 345,000 kW,
Applying for a $ 2 billion subsidy from the US government.
What is a fast reactor:
Use “fission reaction by fast neutrons”.
It is a “reactor that burns plutonium more efficiently” than a normal nuclear power plant.
Plutonium is extracted and reused from spent nuclear fuel.
It is one of the indispensable facilities for the nuclear fuel cycle.
Japanese fast breeder reactor “Monju”:
“Monju” was the center of development in Japan.
However, the decommissioning was decided in 2016 without making a way to the demonstration reactor.
French fast reactor “Astrid”:
Japan has shifted its focus to cooperation with the French fast reactor “Astrid” project.
However, the French government “frozen the Astrid project.”
With this, research on fast reactors in Japan was uncertain.
US Fast Reactor Development:
The United States is also moving away from full-scale fast reactor development.
“The United States wants Japan to cooperate in the TerraPower project,” he said.
Provided Japanese data:
Japan is,
The’lessons of Monju’that caused the sodium leak accident,
We plan to provide actual data of the experimental reactor “Joyo”.
The large sodium test facility “Athena” will also be utilized.
Status of nuclear power plants in Japan:
The restart status of nuclear power plants in Japan is not good.
TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant:
Japan suffered from the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company.
The restart of existing nuclear power plants has not progressed.
Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle:
The total project cost of reprocessing plants in Japan has risen to 14 trillion yen.
The’Japan Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Plant’was supposed to be completed in 1997.
Japan’s “reprocessing plant for spent nuclear fuel” remains unfinished.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUA010PX0R00C22A1000000/
Participation in Japan for US fast reactor project … Technology sharing of “Monju”, utilization for domestic construction
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/science/20211231-OYT1T50209/
TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Introduce Commercial Natrium™ Power Production and Storage System – TerraPower
https://www.terrapower.com/terrapower-and-ge-hitachi-nuclear-energy-launch-natrium-technology/
ASTRID (reactor) – Wikipedia