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Genkai town assembly OKs Kyushu Electric's MOX reactor plan+
(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SAGA, Japan, Feb. 17_(Kyodo) _ The assembly of the town of Genkai, Saga Prefecture, adopted a statement Friday calling on the municipal government to accept Kyushu Electric Power Co.'s offer to begin electric generation using uranium-and-plutonium mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, at the No. 3 reactor of its Genkai nuclear power plant.
In response, Genkai Mayor Tsukasa Terada is expected to officially announce the town's acceptance of the so-called "pluthermal" plan, designed to work off a growing stockpile of spent nuclear fuel.
Saga Gov. Yasushi Furukawa had announced Feb. 7 that the plan, to which the government gave approval in September after safety assessment procedures, is safe.
Pluthermal, or plutonium-thermal power generation, burns MOX made from spent fuel at nuclear reactors.
The method, approved by the Cabinet in 1997, is now at the center of Japan's plan to recycle the growing stockpile of spent fuel from the country's nuclear power plants.
Following the town's move, Saga Gov. Furukawa is expected to give final approval to the plan based on discussions starting at the prefectural assembly on Feb. 21.
Kyushu Electric applied to the central government in May 2004 to install a pluthermal reactor. It has submitted petitions to the Saga prefectural and Genkai town governments to gain their consent.
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