Diamond Semiconductor Plant Completed in Northeastern Japan

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May 29, 2026 22:45 (JST)

Okuma, Fukushima Pref., May 29 (Jiji Press)–A ceremony was held Friday to mark the completion of a diamond semiconductor factory in the town of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan.

The new facility is the world’s first to mass-produce diamond semiconductors, according to Ookuma Diamond Device Co., a startup based in Sapporo, Hokkaido, northern Japan, which runs the plant.

The plant aims to kick off full-scale operations in fiscal 2028, with an aim to produce diamond chips for devices to be used in work to decommission reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in Fukushima Prefecture.

The power plant experienced a triple meltdown following the March 2011 massive earthquake and tsunami. The town of Okuma is one of the two host municipalities of the plant.

Diamond chips can withstand high levels of radiation because they use high-purity synthetic diamonds made from methane gas and other ingredients as substrates, so they are expected to be used in work to remove melted nuclear fuel debris from the Fukushima No. 1 plant reactors.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]

Jiji Press