The operator of Japan’s fuel reprocessing plant said Monday that it was postponing the plant’s opening to as late as September 2018, citing regulators’ lengthy inspection procedures and time needed for safety upgrades. The Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. said it was delaying the targeted completion of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant, which separates plutonium from spent fuel for reuse as fuel, by as much as 2 1/2 years. The delay-plagued plant, initially set for launch in 2000, was most recently set to open in March 2016 following a series of technical problems. JNFL president Kenji Kudo told reporters at the company’s headquarters in Aomori, in northern Japan, that a separate plant to produce plutonium-based fuel had been delayed until sometime during the first half of fiscal 2019. Japan already has about 47 tons of plutonium – 11 tons at home and the rest reprocessed in Britain and […]