Asia Times: Plutonium sails in on a surge of protest



	September 18, 1999	atimes.com

Japan

Plutonium sails in on a surge of protest
By Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO - Ignoring widespread international protests, two armed British-flagged ships carrying enough plutonium-uranium oxide (MOX) - a plutonium fuel - to produce at least 60 nuclear weapons are expected to arrive off the coast of Japan next week.

The highly dangerous shipments, coming from France and the UK, are the first of Japan's expected 18 MOX imports to supply the nation's nuclear fast-breeder reactors, the only ones operating in the world today. A second plutonium shipment is reportedly departing from Europe in November, with the South Pacific again a potential route despite vigorous opposition from countries in the region.

The shipments mark a new and dangerous phase of Japan's nuclear industry with the start of a pilot program to use MOX in conventional nuclear reactors.

''Japan's market for spent fuel, capable of producing nuclear weapons, is the largest in the world and is directly aiding the possibility of a nuclear weapons build-up in East Asia,'' warned Shaun Burnie, head of the plutonium campaign at Greenpeace, Netherlands.

He says operators of plants in the UK and France hope to massively expand production of plutonium fuel if Japan signs contracts based on a successful transport this year.

Japan defends its highly controversial nuclear power program as peaceful and open and guarantees that it is only to supply the country's fast growing energy needs.

But Japan's 11 utility companies are facing massive public protests as well as bitter conflict with governments that represent countries on the sea route taken by the plutonium carrying ships. ''Plutonium is a direct-use bomb material and Japan has no peaceful justification for the continuation of its program," said Greenpeace in a statement this week.

Environmentalists hope the final blow to Japan's nuclear power program is a report released by the British nuclear reprocessing company that acknowledged serious ''irregularities'' in the manufacture of nuclear fuel rods destined for export. A press statement by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the utility companies that ordered reprocessed MOX from the British company, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, confirmed the discrepancy.

MITI's safety management division has ordered an investigation into the problem, which is suspected to be related to the size of the pellets that contain the plutonium. These pellets are loaded into fuel rods that are welded before being put into steel casks to be packed into the ships for the trip.

According to Greenpeace, there are 40 drums of MOX containing some 450 kilograms of plutonium. Environmentalists hope the latest report will prove to be too big an embarrassment for the Japanese government and utility companies to carry on with the plutonium program.

Japan's nuclear power program has been dogged recently by several accidents and the new report of blatant discrepancy may increase public fear. Mike Townsley of Greenpeace International, a plutonium expert, points out that loading a reactor with defective MOX pellets would have serious safety implications, a frightening situation for the public. ''The pellets will have to be pulled apart and checked, thus calling for an expensive new program. It is a huge embarrassment for the government and we hope it could force Japan to make this the last shipment to be carried out ever,'' he explained.

The ships are expected to be make their first stop at the pier of the No 1 Fukushima nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Co in Fukushima. The vessels will then be at Takahama nuclear power plant of Kansai Electric Power Co by the Sea of Japan on September 27. The ships are carrying armed British soldiers, who will have to be disarmed before entering Japanese waters, after which the vessels will be accompanied by Japan's Self Defense Forces.

After MOX is taken from the ships, the fuel is expected to be stored on the site for around three weeks before being installed in the reactors. Opponents worry that during the storage period, the sites could be targets of terrorist attacks.

Activists contend the reasons why Japan stubbornly refuses to stop its MOX shipments are pride as well as a lingering desire to be able to have the capability to produce nuclear weapons. Under the Japan-US Security Pact, signed after Japan's defeat in World War II, the country is prohibited from having a weapons program.

Still, activists point out, a nuclear bomb can be made in weeks and with the huge supply of plutonium owned by Japan, it comes as no surprise that other countries are getting increasingly edgy.

(Inter Press Service)

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©1999 Asia Times Online Co., Ltd.