Govt should pull the plug on Monju program

November 5, 2015

EDITORIAL: Abe government should finally scrap Monju fast-breeder reactor

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201511050029

The Nuclear Regulation Authority decided Nov. 4 to recommend that the operator of the trouble-plagued Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor be replaced.

The nuclear safety watchdog will issue a recommendation to science and technology minister Hiroshi Hase to choose a new operator to replace the government-affiliated Japan Atomic Energy Agency, which the NRA says is unfit for the job.

The NRA intends to ask Hase, who oversees the Monju program, to reply to its recommendation within six months. If the minister fails to pick a new organization to manage and operate the reactor, the NRA will call for a fundamental review of the program.

Twenty years after the reactor was hit by a major accident in which a massive leak of sodium from a pipe carrying sodium coolant caused a fire, the safety of the technology has yet to be firmly established.

Although the NRA has left open the possibility of keeping the Monju program alive, it will not be easy to find a new operator of the reactor as the NRA has recommended.

The JAEA took over Monju operations from the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, which was created in 1998 through a reorganization of Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp.

A simple reorganization of the JAEA will not do, and there is currently no viable candidate to take over its role.

The Abe administration should decide to decommission the reactor.

The government should take seriously the decision by the NRA, an independent watchdog created in 2012 in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster, to issue its first recommendation based on the view that the current Monju operator is not qualified for the mission.

In May 2013, the JAEA was banned by the NRA from making preparations for a resumption of Monju operations after the agency was found in 2012 to have failed to conduct proper safety checks on about 10,000 pieces of equipment.

In past safety inspections, the JAEA was found to have violated safety regulations on eight occasions.

Given these records, the NRA’s decision that the JAEA is not a suitable operator of the technologically challenged reactor is not unexpected.

Unlike ordinary nuclear reactors operated by electric utilities, Monju uses sodium as coolant. Sodium is a volatile chemical because it reacts violently with water.

Theoretically, the Monju fast-breeder reactor can produce more plutonium than the amount of plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel through reprocessing and used as its fuel.

But the big problem is that there is no reliable technology to use sodium as a reactor coolant.

If the Monju program is kept alive without a clear vision and plan for the development of practical breeder-reactor technology, its safety will eventually be jeopardized because of a lack of discipline.

In addition to safety concerns, a diminishing need for breeder-reactor technology is undermining the case for continuing the Monju program.

The prices of uranium, the fuel for commercial nuclear reactors, remain stable at low levels. That means developing costly fast-breeder reactor technology does not make economic sense.

Since the 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, there has also been slow but steady growth in the domestic production of renewable energy.

The fiscal crunch facing this nation casts further doubt on the wisdom of continuing the operation of the troubled reactor, which costs some 20 billion yen annually for maintenance alone, while both its prospects for future practical use and its economic necessity are highly questionable. Many other industrial nations have already given up developing breeder reactors.

Pulling the plug on the Monju program is the only reasonable option. The decision to do so should be the government’s answer to the NRA’s recommendation.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 5