The Japan Atomic Energy Agency and two Japanese companies Wednesday signed an agreement with TerraPower LLC on a fast reactor the U.S. nuclear power firm plans to build with financial assistance from the U.S. Energy Department.
The two sides will discuss nuclear technology cooperation, the memorandum of understanding said, with the discussions likely to focus on the use of sodium as a coolant and information exchange regarding Japan's experience of operating the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor.
The two Japanese companies are Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi FBR Systems Inc., while Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates co-founded TerraPower.
The agreement came after Japanese industry minister Koichi Hagiuda vowed to bolster the development of next-generation nuclear power technology in cooperation with the United States during talks with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm earlier this month.
TerraPower is expected to tap the know-how of the Japanese agency that has a history of operating sodium-cooled fast reactors, such as Monju in Fukui Prefecture and the Joyo experimental fast reactor in Ibaraki Prefecture.
TerraPower plans to build a 345,000-kilowatt sodium-cooled fast reactor in the U.S. state of Wyoming starting in 2024. It aims to complete construction in 2028.
The development of fast reactors in Japan has been halted since the government decided to decommission Monju in 2016, following a series of problems, including leakage of sodium coolant in 1995.
The three-party Japanese consortium has said it hopes to increase its technological capability through operating with the U.S. firm.
But it is unknown how beneficial such a collaboration will be in restarting domestic development of such reactors.
The Japanese agency said it is considering offering operational data at Monju and Joyo, as well as using its sodium experimental facility Athena in Ibaraki Prefecture to develop safety technology.
The agency, in return, is hoping to obtain TerraPower's data to design reactors.
Japan is pursuing a nuclear fuel recycling policy in which plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel at power plants is reused. Fast reactors play a crucial role in such a recycling process.
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