Monju trial run reset for next fiscal year

The science ministry will postpone until fiscal 2012 the planned trial run of the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture in the aftermath of an accident involving the reactor last year and the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis, ministry sources said Thursday.

The decision was made after a device that fell into the reactor in August last year was retrieved with much difficulty and because the reactor must undergo a stress test in light of the disaster at the Fukushima plant, according to the sources at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The original plan was to test-operate the reactor in Tsuruga at 40 percent of its output capacity in the year through March.

The ministry has already placed a de facto freeze on research at the trouble-prone Monju for at least one year, sharply cutting funding for the project as the government has yet to chart its future nuclear power policy. But the ministry aims to cobble together a necessary budget so the trial can go ahead in fiscal 2012.

The reactor had been expected to play a key role in the nuclear fuel recycling program.

SHIZUOKA — The municipal government of Makinohara, Shizuoka Prefecture, said its recent local poll found that more than half of the respondents want to keep a nearby nuclear plant idled due to earthquake concerns.

Chubu Electric Power Co. shut down the Hamaoka nuclear plant in mid-May as requested by the government due to fears of a possible major earthquake, after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant crisis.

The municipality, which is within 10-km of the Hamaoka plant, ran the poll from June through July, getting 600 responses.

A total of 53.6 percent of the respondents said they want the plant to remain idled, while 6.3 percent said they want to see decommissioning, which means around 60 percent were against restarting the plant.

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