November construction start for Japanese MOX plant

17 April 2009

[Japan Today, 17 April; Bloomberg, 16 April] Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd (JNFL) plans to start construction of a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel plant at Rokksaho in November. The company has said it is aiming for a startup date of 2015 for the plant, revising the date of 2012 specified in an earlier construction application. It has also said it will spend an extra 60 billion yen ($606 million) to improve seismic safety at the plant, resulting in a 46% increase in plant construction costs to 190 billion yen ($1.91 billion). Construction of the plant had originally been scheduled to begin in 2007 but has been delayed by reviews of seismic criteria.