Fugen Nuclear Power Plant

This article is about a nuclear reactor. For the Bodhisattva, see Samantabhadra (Bodhisattva). For the Austrian municipality, see Fügen.
Fugen Nuclear Power Plant
The Fugen NPP in 1975, Image: Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
Map
CountryJapan
Coordinates35°45′16″N 136°00′59″E / 35.75444°N 136.01639°E / 35.75444; 136.01639
StatusDecommissioned
Construction beganMay 10, 1972 (1972-05-10)
Commission dateMarch 20, 1979 (1979-03-20)
Decommission dateMarch 29, 2003 (2003-03-29)
OperatorJapan Atomic Energy Agency
Nuclear power station
Reactor typeHWLWR
Power generation
Units decommissioned1 x 165 MW
Nameplate capacity165 MW
Capacity factor23.9%
Annual net output345 GW·h
External links
Websitewww.jnc.go.jp/zfugen
CommonsRelated media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]
The Tsuruga NPP and Fugen NPP together in the same image

Fugen ふげん (Fugen) was a prototype Japanese nuclear test reactor. Fugen was a domestic Japanese design for a demonstration Advanced Thermal Reactor. It was a heavy water moderated, boiling light water cooled reactor.[1] The reactor was started in 1979 and shut down in 2003. As of 2018, it is undergoing decommissioning.[1] It is located in Myōjin-chō, in the city of Tsuruga, Fukui. The name "Fugen" is derived from Fugen Bosatsu (Samantabhadra), a Buddhist deity.

The reactor was the first in the world to use a full MOX fuel core. It had 772 assemblies, the most in the world. It has received the title of a historic landmark from the American Nuclear Society.

The design boils ordinary water like a boiling water reactor (BWR) but uses heavy water as a moderator as in a CANDU reactor. The electrical output was 165 MW and the thermal output was 557 MW.

  • Core temperature: 300 °C
  • Pellet centerline temperature: 2200 °C
  • Fuel conversion time: 6 months

The plant is located on a site that covers 267,694 m2 (66 acres); buildings occupy 7,762 m2 (1.9 acres), and it has 46,488 m2 of floor space. It employed 256 workers.[2]

  1. ^ a b "History of Fugen | Reactor Decommissioning Research and Development Center". www.jaea.go.jp. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  2. ^ JAEA (Japanese). Facilities Quick View Archived 2012-04-20 at the Wayback Machine.