tokyo

Credit: PNC

Japan's troubled prototype advanced thermal nuclear reactor, Fugen (pictured right), will continue operating for a further five years out of consideration for its 300 employees and because of its contribution to the local economy. The Science and Technology Agency (STA) has abandoned the idea of closing it down early.

The agency announced last week that Fugen, which comes under the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Corporation (PNC), will continue operating until 2003, two years longer than initially planned. The decision came despite a series of accidents at the site, the most recent in October, when two plant workers were exposed to radiation during a routine inspection.

Fugen, in the reactor-studded Tsuruga City in Fukui Prefecture on the coast of the Sea of Japan, is the only heavy-water reactor among Japan's 50 operating nuclear reactors. The closure decision was made by the STA when a leak of tritium and heavy water in April was left unreported by the PNC for more than 30 hours (see Nature 386, 746; 1997). Further investigations revealed that there had been 18 unreported cases of tritium leakage since 1992.

The incident followed a series of nuclear accidents and cover-ups by the PNC. Responding to growing criticism and public discontent about mishandling of nuclear accidents, the STA formed a PNC reform committee to draw up measures for its reorganization.

After the committee's decision to shut the Monju experimental reactor and Fugen, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's administrative reform council made plans to create a semi-private organization to take over part of PNC's core activities, including the operation of Fugen before closure.

The plan to extend Fugen's operations came after local authorities in Fukui, concerned about the local economy and employment, protested against the early closure. The reactor has been shut since the summer for inspection, and will restart some operations in December.

It is still not known when the new five-year term will begin. “It will start some time next year, but it could be as late as next October, when Fugen is handed over to the new controlling body,” says one STA official.