The Last Twenty Years of Experience with Fast Reactors in Japan

Fast reactor development experience gained in Japan in the last twenty years is summarized in this paper. In this twenty years, the safety, reliability and economic goals of fast reactors have become more ambitious than in the past. However, twenty years of progress have shown that the domestic commercialized sodium cooled fast reactor (SFR) concept, the Japanese SFR, could achieve those targets discussed in the Feasibility Study on Commercialized Fast Reactor Cycle Systems (FS) and the Fast Reactor Cycle Technology Development (FaCT) projects. The Monju prototype fast breeder reactor is finally going to restart by the end of this Japanese fiscal year (March 2010) and will take on the role of a technology and human resource development centre from both a domestic and an international point of view. (author)