Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., set up by the nation's nine regional power companies and other firms, began the one-year tests with depleted uranium at a plant in Rokkasho-mura on the northern tip of the main island Honshu.

The recycling of spent nuclear fuel is billed as a way to reuse resources. The technology is already used in Europe and Russia, leading Japan to ship its spent fuel overseas.

"Our journey has not always been easy but today's start of uranium tests is a big step towards reprocessing," Japan Nuclear president Isami Kojima said in a televised news conference in the village.

Scores of demonstrators holding up banners staged a rally outside the plant despite a blizzard, saying the research was unsafe.

The environmental group Greenpeace argues that reprocessing spent fuel does not eliminate nuclear waste, which is simply being repackaged in a way that remains dangerous, particularly during transport.

It took more than 11 years and two trillion yen (19.2 billion dollars) to build the reprocessing plant. A company spokesman said the tests were the first of a radioactive substance.

"We aim to check if facilities will work properly with the radioactive substance and if our manuals will function," the spokesman said.

The new tests mean the company has entered the third of four phases in the experiment with previous tests using water, air and acid, he said.

It expects to start the final round of tests using real spent nuclear fuel - or the de facto trial run of the plant - in about a year, with the aim of starting full-fledged operation of the facility in July 2006.

Japan's government and electric industry want to extract plutonium from spent fuel, enrich it and mix it with uranium oxide to create MOX fuel, which is then burned in light-water reactors.

The Rokkasho-mura plant initially wanted to start uranium tests in May 2001 but the plan has been postponed 13 times to Tuesday due to construction problems on a fuel storage facility and opposition from residents.

Japan has been increasingly concerned about nuclear fuel since 1999 when three workers at a uranium processing plant at Tokaimura, 120 kilometresmiles) northeast of Tokyo, sparked criticism.

The accident exposed more than 400 residents to radiation in the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. Two of the workers later died.

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