Development of future PWR toward the 21st century

Our country's energy demand is expected to increase steadily into the future. When the situation of our country, which is not rich in energy resources, is taken into account, it seems that the importance of nuclear power generation will be heightened. Based on such a background, the basic policy for nuclear power generation is 'from light water reactors to fast breeder reactors'. However, considering that light water reactors have become common, the recent outlook for the supply and demand for uranium resources, development trends of fast breeder reactor technology, etc., the light water reactor is expected to remain dominant in our country until as least the second half of the 21st century. Therefore, five PWR utilities in Japan (Hokkaido, Kansai, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Japan Atomic Power), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., and Westinghouse Electric Corp. have jointly started researching the Next Generation PWR which is expected to be the leading nuclear power plant, taking place of APWR. In this program, construction is targeted to start from 2010 based on expected future environmental conditions. At the same time a feasibility study of the plant concept which forms the plant framework has just been started. (author)