Japan saves fast breeder reactor

Intense lobbying by the nuclear power industry and its allies has saved the Monju fast-breeder reactor from the scrap heap.

Located in the western coast in Fukui prefecture, the reactor is Japan’s sole fast-breeder reactor or FBR. This type of reactor is faster and more efficient than conventional ones and uses liquid metal sodium instead of water to conduct the reactor’s thermal energy.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was selected by the government as Japan’s core company in FBR development.

Monju's supporters say the reactor offers a panacea for Japan's escalating energy problems that have led to a massive increase in pollution since the government took all 50 of the country’s nuclear reactors offline following the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011.

Science and Technology Minister Hirofumi Hirano informed Fukui prefecture Governor Issei Nishikawa last week that the central government has no plans to scrap the Monju fast-breeder reactor.

Satoru Kondo, the director general of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency's Fast Breeder Reactor Research and Development Center said Japan can have energy supplied for 1,000 years because we fuel can be created at Monju.

Monju, however, has produced electricity for only one hour since it began operating in 1994. A series of serious accidents have hindered Monju from producing electricity on a commercial scale despite Japan spending a huge US$13 billion to build the plant.