Secret meetings did have an impact

Secret meetings on nuclear fuel cycle influenced subcommittee discussion: report

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120802p2a00m0na004000c.html

Secret meetings of pro-nuclear power experts organized by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) influenced discussion by a subcommittee on Japan's nuclear fuel cycle, a report by a Cabinet Office investigative team has concluded.

The report, which is due to be handed to nuclear disaster minister Goshi Hosono on Aug. 3, acknowledges that electric power companies at the secret meetings pushed for the adoption of policies in favor of maintaining Japan's nuclear fuel recycle, under which spent nuclear fuel would be reprocessed and used as fuel for nuclear reactors. It concludes that the secret meetings, called "study meetings," served as a forum for the government and companies to hammer out policies.

The team's finding contradicts JAEC's stance that the secret meetings did not influence subcommittee discussion on the nuclear fuel cycle.

JAEC set up a subcommittee of experts in September last year to review Japan's nuclear fuel cycle policy in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The subcommittee concluded in June this year that if Japan's level of dependence on nuclear power stood at 15 percent in 2030, then a "concurrent" approach of reprocessing some spent fuel and directly burying other spent fuel underground would be appropriate. The government's Energy and Environment Council is poised to make a decision on Japan's nuclear fuel cycle policy, paying respect to the subcommittee's decision.

The Cabinet Office investigation team questioned about 40 of the 80 or so people who participated in the secret meetings. One of them stated that at a secret meeting on March 8 this year, participants approved a proposal to strike out a scenario on Japan's fast-breeder reactor Monju from discussion by the subcommittee. Under the scenario, Japan's research and development relating to the Monju reactor -- a central part of the nuclear fuel cycle -- would be halted.

The investigation team restored about 6,600 email and data items that a Cabinet Office official who chaired the secret meetings deleted before he stepped down. It found that many participants of the secret meetings had sent emails to JAEC between late April and early May, requesting changes to a draft of the subcommittee's final recommendation.

When the recommendation was still in a draft format, it included expressions favoring direct disposal of all spent nuclear fuel from Japan's nuclear power plants. However, the recommendation that had been revised to favor the concurrent approach of partial reprocessing was submitted to a subcommittee meeting on May 8.

Ahead of the latest report, JAEC acting head Tatsujiro Suzuki, who attended the secret meetings on 21 occasions and presided over the "official" meetings of the subcommittee, had maintained that the secret meetings had not influenced the subcommittee's discussion.