Japan still faces a tough road ahead over the construction of a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture, whose completion date has been moved back 27 times.

With less than a year to go until the current deadline at the end of next March, Japan Nuclear Fuel is in time-consuming exchanges with the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) over the plant.

The completion ¡°will definitely be delayed¡± again, Aomori Gov. Soichiro Miyashita has said. Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara has said that the deadline remains unchanged.