Japan-France: Joint research on ASTRID

Fast reactor research set with France

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0001243370 

8:51 pm, April 29, 2014

The Yomiuri Shimbun Japan and France will formally agree to promote joint research on a fast reactor, the next-generation nuclear reactor, during Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to France, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned

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According to sources, Japan will provide technical cooperation to France’s fast reactor development project, the main purpose of which is to reduce high-level radioactive waste.

As part of the joint research, France will call on Japan to use its Monju facility, a prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, to test fuel for ASTRID (Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration), France’s new fast demonstration reactor. As operations at Monju have been suspended following a series of difficulties, the Japanese government will prepare to restart its operations.

A consensus document for the joint research will be signed by representatives from the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, the Natural Resources and Energy Agency and France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. At a summit meeting between Abe and French President Francois Hollande, which is scheduled for May 5, the two leaders are expected to reconfirm the document.

On Tuesday, Abe took a government plane from Haneda Airport for his European tour, which will take him to six countries—Germany, Britain, Portugal, Spain, France and Belgium.

France aims to complete a basic design for the ASTRID reactor by 2019 and start its operations around 2025. The new fast reactor is aimed at reducing the amount of radioactive waste produced at nuclear power plants, as well as drastically shortening the period during which radioactivity generated from nuclear waste is hazardous to humans.

The Japanese government apparently intends to show its proactive attitude toward the issue of how radioactive waste should be handled through the Japan-French joint research, with an eye to reactivate nuclear power plants in the country. Currently, all the nation’s 48 nuclear reactors for power generation have been suspended.

According to the sources, the French contingent has made strong demands to use Japan’s Monju reactor to test fuel for the ASTRID reactor. To facilitate this, the Japanese government will accelerate organizational reforms of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), which is responsible for operations at Monju, and seek to reactivate Monju by having it pass safety checks by the Nuclear Regulation Authority and other requirements.

After the joint research project is officially agreed upon, the JAEA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., French nuclear group Areva and others will conduct joint research together on a design outline for the ASTRID reactor this summer at the earliest, and start work on its basic design from around 2016, the sources said.

Concerning cooperation on a fast reactor between Japan and France, Abe and Hollande agreed to enhance their partnership, which was stipulated in a joint statement released after their summit meeting in June last year.

A fast reactor is a nuclear reactor where fast neutrons released through the fission events of radioactive fuel are used without moderating their speed, so that these fission events will continue. Through this approach, the reactor is capable of generating more fuel than it consumes while generating electricity, and can also be used to reduce the volume of radioactive waste.