The Japan Atomic Energy Agency is a Japanese atomic energy company. While it inherited the activities of both JNC and JAERI, it also inherited the nickname of JAERI, "Genken" 原研, an abbreviated word for "nuclear research".
On April 10, 2007, JAEA officially joined the GNEP alliance.[1] The other members in the alliance are Areva, Washington Group International and BWX. It is expected that the experience gained from the Rokkasho centrifuge enrichment plant will be a key contribution from JAEA.
On April 1, 2016, JAEA transferred some of its laboratories to the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS), and the NIRS body was renamed to the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST) which includes existing laboratories of the NIRS.
In 2018 JAEA estimated it would need about 1.9 trillion yen ($17.1 billion) to decommission 79 facilities over 70 years.[2]
Overview
Establishment: October 2005
Founding Law: The Japan Atomic Energy Agency Law (日本原子力研究開発機構法)[3]
Headquarters: Tokai-mura
Permanent Staff: 4386 people as of October 2005
Board Chairman: 岡﨑俊雄 Inaugurated January 2007
Locations and facilities
The following is an incomplete list of its activities, sorted by location:
Tokai-mura facilities
JAEA has several facilities located in Tōkai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which was the first center in Japan for nuclear research. Currently, JAEA has expanded to several other sites in the Ibaraki Prefecture as well as all of Japan.
Ningyo-toge Environmental Engineering Center (人形峠環境技術センター)
This is a small uranium refining and conversion plant, as well as a small centrifuge enrichment demonstration plant located in Kamisaibara, Okayama Prefecture. The center deals with front-end issues of the nuclear fuel cycle.[4]
Aomori R&D Center (青森研究開発センター)
The Aomori Research and Development Center is spread out over Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture and Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture. The Rokkasho site does work with fusion research, notably a fusion reactor design research institute, a particle accelerator, and a materials irradiation test facility. The facilities in Mutsu include a museum, an ocean monitoring facility, and radioactive waste management.
JAEA also co-operates and provides support for the activities of Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited with their reprocessing facility and Uranium enrichment facility plans.
Horonobe Underground Research Center (幌延深地層研究センター)
The Horonobe URL carries out research and development on geoscientific study and on geological disposal for high-level radioactive waste. It is expected that this site will become Japan's national Deep geological repository for nuclear waste.
