Kansai Electric Power Company will receive a shipment of MOX fuel assemblies in 2020, according to a report in Asahi Shimbun. They would be used at Takahama 3 and 4, which are among the nine reactors operating in Japan. Mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, is nuclear fuel made from reprocessed plutonium and uranium.

The fossil fuel assets of Japanese utilities Tokyo Electric Power Company and Chubu Electric Company have been passed to their Jera joint venture, as a requirement of power market liberalisation, leaving them with transmission, distribution and retail businesses, and their nuclear plants.

Bolted flange tanks at Fukushima Daiichi, which had previously leaked, are no longer in use. Tokyo Electric Power Company has completed the transfer of the treated water to new welded tanks onsite while it awaits permission to discharge.

Japan's Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation has developed oxidation-reduction treatment technology that enables certain elements to be extracted from vitrified high-level radioactive waste. The technology will allow for the reuse of those elements and a reduction in the volume of high-level waste to be disposed of.

A joint team of UK and Japanese researchers have used the UK's synchrotron science facility to analyse the internal structure and composition of a radioactive particle collected from close to the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

Imports of liquefied natural gas for Japan's electric power sector are likely to decrease by up to 10% in 2019 following the return to service last year of five nuclear reactors, the US Energy Information Administration said yesterday.

Kyushu Electric Power Company today announced its decision not to restart unit 2 at its Genkai nuclear power plant in Japan's Saga prefecture. The unit becomes the tenth operable Japanese reactor to be declared for decommissioning since the Fukushima Daiichi accident.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has released photos of fuel debris within the primary containment vessel of unit 2 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. The company determined that the debris can be lifted, which will help in removing the material.

Kansai Electric Power Company has informed Fukui Prefecture that the restart of units 1 and 2 of the Takahama nuclear power plant and unit 3 of the Mihama plant has been delayed as work to bolster safety measures will now take longer than originally expected.

While much progress has already been made in decommissioning the damaged Fukushima Daiichi units, Japan must ensure it is prepared for future challenges, such as used fuel and fuel debris removal, a mission by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said.

Toshiba has developed a remotely-operated robot to investigate debris in the bottom of the primary containment vessel of unit 2 at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan.

Kansai Electric Power Company has submitted a detailed decommissioning plan to the Nuclear Regulation Authority for units 1 and 2 at its Ohi nuclear power plant in Japan's Fukui Prefecture.