In an effort to find a temporary solution for Japan’s growing volume of spent nuclear fuel, some utilities plan to build dry storage on their power plant premises. This stop-gap measure would run until a time when the spent fuel could be sent to an intermediate storage, and then from there, ideally, sent to a reprocessing plant if one is ever built in the country. 

For decades, Japan’s nuclear industry has pursued a vision of a ‘closed cycle’, where nuclear fuel would be recycled and reused in a nearly continuous process. Yet, such plans are far from materializing. Japan’s planned nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in the village of Rokkasho is the central point of this strategy, but it has faced 27 construction delays and it’s still not clear if it will ever be built.

In the past year, efforts by nuclear power operators suggest that while they still believe in the validity of the closed cycle concept, they’re preparing for a sort of “Plan B” that involves storing spent nuclear fuel temporarily – that is, for several decades – without relying on the completion of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant.

This Plan B is led by KEPCO, the utility with the most nuclear power plants currently online. To maintain public trust in both itself and the entire nuclear sector, KEPCO is pursuing the dry cask option, especially since it can no longer delay removing spent fuel from on-site storage pools.

The situation is dire, and a solution must be implemented in the next five years, say industry insiders. The government has declared nuclear power to be essential to Japan’s energy independence and as a source of carbon-free energy. If the industry’s Plan A (closed fuel cycle and Rokkasho) fails and Plan B (dry casks) is delayed, then the promise of the benefits of nuclear energy for Japan in the coming decade will be in doubt.