Japanese Nuclear fuel plant closed since 1997 opens 'for checkups'

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Nuclear fuel plant closed since 1997 opens 'for checkups'

MITO, Japan, June 29 (Kyodo) - A nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in 
Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, which has been closed since a fire in 
1997, reopened Thursday for what the operator says are checkups. 

The state-run Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, formerly the 
Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. (Donen), closed the 
facility in March 1997 after a fire and explosion exposed 37 workers 
to radiation. 

The Tokaimura village and Ibaraki prefectural governments have not 
given the green light for operations to resume. The institute said it 
is opening the plant again merely for checkups, not to resume 
operations. 

Some residents are against the resumption of operations, particularly 
since Japan's worst nuclear accident occurred at a uranium-processing 
facility in the village in September last year. 

Last May, the government's Nuclear Safety Commission declared the 
institute's plant safe. 

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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
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