TOKYO, Nov. 9, 2009 (Kyodo News International) -- ''Pluthermal'' power generation using plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel began Monday for the first time in Japan at a reactor at the Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture, Kyushu Electric Power (OOTC:KYSEY) Co. said.
Pluthermal power generation, seen as a pillar of Japan's nuclear fuel recycling initiative, has commenced around 10 years behind schedule.
The 1.18 million-kilowatt No. 3 reactor loaded with MOX fuel was activated Oct. 5 and the fuel reached late that night a critical state where a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is attained.
The pressurized light-water reactor began generating electricity at 1:48 p.m. and Kyushu Electric plans to gradually raise its output to 100 percent capacity in a week to 10 days.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is scheduled to conduct checks on the reactor Dec. 2 to examine the stability of its power output and core performance. If the reactor clears the checks, it will go into full-fledged operation that day.
Japan's electric power industry originally planned to begin pluthermal power generation in the late 1990s.
In February 1997, Japan's Cabinet endorsed the power industry's plan to use MOX fuel in reactors. Kansai Electric Power Co. gained government approval for the use of MOX fuel at that time, and Tokyo Electric Power Co. secured approval in 1999.
The plan was delayed by coverups of reactor problems at various nuclear power plants and opposition from local governments and residents.
Kyushu Electric, a Fukuoka-based power firm supplying electricity to the Kyushu region, attained government approval in 2005 for pluthermal power generation at the Genkai nuclear power plant.
The company began regular checks of the No. 3 reactor at the Genkai plant in late August and finished loading MOX fuel, a mixture of uranium and plutonium reprocessed from spent uranium, into the reactor in mid-October.
The electric power industry says MOX power generation could lead to the efficient use of uranium and plutonium.
The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, made up of the country's 10 regional power utilities, has already announced a plan to use MOX fuel at 16-18 nuclear reactors across the country by fiscal 2015, which begins in April that year.
Shikoku Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric Power Co. plan to start MOX power generation at the Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture and the Hamaoka plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, respectively, in 2010 or later.
