12 October 2000

JNFL Announces Terms of Agreement on Community Safety and Environmental Protection Guidelines for the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and Spent Fuel Storage Facility

Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited Tetsuo Takeuchi, President

With representatives of the Federation of Electric Power Companies in attendance, JNFL today concluded an agreement with Aomori prefectural and Rokkasho municipal officials concerning community safety and environmental protection guidelines and their implementation. Emendations to guidelines for existing facilities were also covered in the agreement. JNFL thanks Governor Morio Kimura and Mayor Hisashi Hashimoto, as well as other concerned parties, for their unstinting efforts in bringing the agreement to a successful conclusion. The agreement marks a major step toward the goal of initiating the reprocessing operations that are essential to nuclear fuel recycling, and for this, we are extremely grateful. In light of the criticality accident that occurred at the JCO Tokai plant last year, and the significant concerns it raised at every level of society regarding the operational safety of our facilities, we have been made deeply aware of the gravity of the responsibilities we are charged with. In the future, we pledge strict adherence to the terms of the community safety and environmental protection guidelines, and will make safety our top priority in all spent fuel receiving and storage operations.