The government of Japan released The Status Report of Plutonium Management in Japan - 2024 report, which details its plutonium holdings. According to the report:
As of the end of 2024, the total amount of separated plutonium both managed within and outside of Japan was approximately 44.4 tons, approximately 8.6 tons of which was held domestically and the rest of approximately 35.8 tons was held abroad.
This is a decrease of 0.1 tons from the total of 44.5 tons that Japan reported having in 2023. The amount of plutonium held in Japan remained unchanged at 8.6 tons. Unlike the previous year, there was no consumption of separated plutonium in 2024 -- no MOX fuel was loaded and irradiated, and no new separated plutonium was recovered. The slight overall decrease is attributed to approximately 0.05 tons lost due to nuclear losses (natural radioactive decay) and other process variances.
Of the plutonium stored abroad, 14,079 kg are stored in France (14,097 in 2023) and 21,713 kg in the United Kingdom (21,735 in 2023).
General Matter, a company that is planning to build uranium enrichment facilities in the United States, has leased "a 100-acre parcel of federal land at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant" from the Department of Energy. In addition to the land, "the lease provides General Matter with a minimum of 7,600 cylinders of existing uranium hexafluoride."
General Matter is one one the four companies selected by the Department of Energy to work on HALEU enrichment in October 2024.
The second reprocessing line at the Mining and Chemical Combine in Zheleznogorsk began operations in July 2025. The construction of the line, which is part of the Pilot Demonstration Center, was completed in November 2024. According to the current report, the line, once it reaches the full capacity, will be reprocessing 200 MT of spent fuel annually. (Image source: Rosatom documentary.)
Rosatom's subsidiary, TVEL, has produced the first batch of tenth-generation centrifuges. The centrifuges will be installed at one of Rosatom enrichment facilities.
This development is part of Rosatom's modernization program that began installing 9+-generation centrifuges at the Urals Electrochemical Combine in Novouralsk in 2018 and at the Zelenogorsk Electrochemical Plant in 2019.
Zelenogorsk Electrochemical Plant completed the modernization of its main production lines. This completed the replacement of old centrifuges with centrifuges of the 9+ generation that began in 2019.
On 11 July 2025, Rosatom started the preparatory work for the construction of BN-1200M reactor at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant. The reactor will be the 5th unit at the site.
The reactor at Beloyarsk NPP is the first of several fast neutron reactor units Rosatom is planning to build in the coming years. The long-term plan also envisions the development of reactors of a different, not yet specified type.
US Department of Energy announced that US company Centrus completed production of 900 kg of HALEU.
The company began HALEU production in October 2023 at its cascade of 16 centrifuges. The cascade was reported to be capable of producing 900 kg of HALEU annually. Centrus plans to increase the production of HALEU, including at a new cascade of 120 centrifuges.
Japan's Nuclear Reprocessing and Decommissioning Facilitation Organization (NuRO), responsible for the management of the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle, revealed a substantial increase in the cost of the facility. The construction cost is now expected to reach 3.7 trillion yen (about $25 billion). The total cost of the Rokkasho project, which includes the operating cost over 40 years as well as decommissioning, is expected to reach 15.6 trillion yen ($104 billion).
NuRO listed several factors that led to the cost increase:
- Progress in consideration of compliance with new regulatory standards,
- Facility maintenance and management following the revision of the completion date from "as early as possible in the first half of fiscal year 2024" to "during fiscal year 2026,"
- Additional measures related to regulatory compliance and stable operation,
- Reflection of the latest economic indicators.
NuRO also confirmed that the plant, constructed by the Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited (JNFL), is not expected to begin operations before the end of the 2026 fiscal year (end of March 2027). This decision was announced by JNFL in August 2024. It should be noted that the actual shearing and reprocessing operation is scheduled to start in the latter half of FY2027.
For background of the Rokkasho project, see the 2023 post by Tatsujiro Suzuki - "Japan's never ending reprocessing saga."
US administration issued a series of executive orders aimed at "reinvigorating the nuclear industrial base":
The executive orders contain a number of provisions regarding the production and management of fissile materials.
In particular, the "Reinvigorate" order directs the Department of Energy to explore ways to "maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of nuclear fuel through recycling, reprocessing, and reinvigorating the commercial sector." It also directs the government to provide a report that would evaluate of the reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel from DoD and DoE reactors. The report must also envision a possibility of transferring spent fuel to some "government-owned, privately operated reprocessing and recycling facility."
The "Reinvigorate" order terminated the surplus plutonium dilute and dispose program and establish instead "a program to dispose of surplus plutonium by processing and making it available to industry" for fuel in advanced reactors. The exception is made for the DoE's obligations to South Carolina, which calls for the removal of about 9.5 tonnes of plutonium from the Savannah River Site facility there. In 2016, the US Government approved the elimination of 6 MT of this material via the dilute and dispose route. The first shipment of this material was delivered to WIPP in December 2022. It appears that plutonium could also be removed from South Carolina via other disposition paths.
Regarding uranium enrichment, the executive order calls for the development of "a plan to expand domestic uranium conversion capacity and expand enrichment capabilities sufficient to meet projected civilian and defense reactor needs for low enriched uranium (LEU), high enriched uranium (HEU) and high assay, low enriched uranium (HALEU)." This requirement is largely in line with the policy of the Biden administration that supported the expansion of the domestic enrichment capacity and HALEU production in particular.
Global Laser Enrichment, US company that is commercializing the Silex laser enrichment technology, began large-scale demonstration testing at the Test Loop Facility located in Wilmington, North Carolina. GLE is quoted as saying that the testing program is expected to be a pivotal validation of large-scale enrichment performance under operationally relevant conditions. It is part of the TRL-6 validation that was expected to be completed in 2024.
