Koizumi is right: What about nuclear waste?

 October 22, 2013

EDITORIAL: Abe should heed Koizumi’s warning on nuclear waste

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201310220039

Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is waging a spirited crusade to move Japan away from nuclear power generation.

Koizumi argues it is irresponsible to continue generating electricity with nuclear energy because there is no feasible plan to dispose of radioactive waste from the nuclear plants.

He calls for new policy efforts to make Japan a recycling-oriented society by taking advantage of renewable energy and energy-saving technologies.

In our editorials, we have occasionally discussed the radioactive waste problem, which is often compared to “an apartment without a bathroom.” Koizumi is making a strong and convincing case.

This is a formidable challenge demanding a fundamental and swift response in the process of reviewing Japan’s traditional energy policy. The government needs to understand this completely.

During the current Diet session, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in response to questions from opposition lawmakers, has repeatedly pledged to reduce Japan’s dependence on nuclear power generation as much as possible.

Despite Abe’s remarks, however, the current energy policy debate within the government clearly shows the Abe administration’s desire to return to a reliance on nuclear energy.

In work to revise the government’s basic energy plan toward the end of the year, arguments stressing the importance of using nuclear energy have dominated the debate. Little progress has been made in developing specific plans to deal with radioactive waste and other byproducts from nuclear power plants.

There is still no candidate site for a deep geological repository that can store nuclear waste for a long time. The government has been publicly inviting municipalities to volunteer to host the facility since 2002, but not one has responded to the call.

It is even more difficult now to persuade a local community to accept such a repository after the nation watched what happened at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

During an Oct. 21 Diet session, Abe indicated his intention to consider additional measures for technological improvements on geological disposal. At the root of the problem, however, is the lack of national consensus on the nuclear power policy itself.

The government should start crafting concrete plans to dispose of radioactive waste combined with steps to phase out nuclear power generation.

From this point of view, recommendations made by the Science Council of Japan offer some valuable ideas.

The council has called on the government to switch its approach to dealing with radioactive waste to temporary storage on the surface or in shallow underground facilities. It should then set a ceiling on the total amount of such waste to prevent its continuous growth, the council said.

We think the government should also end the project to establish a nuclear fuel recycling system. Spent nuclear fuel should be transferred into reinforced containers called dry casks for temporary surface storage instead of being kept in vulnerable spent fuel pools.

After taking these steps to secure the safety of radioactive waste for the time being, the government needs to promote further research into final disposal methods and build a social consensus on the issue. That would be the most realistic approach.

Even for interim storage of nuclear waste, it would take time to establish safety standards, develop necessary legal infrastructure and manufacture and build the equipment and facilities. Therefore, it would be necessary to set up related regulations, such as prohibiting the operation of a nuclear power plant that fails to meet the conditions.

The government would act in a grossly irresponsible manner if it seeks to restart idled nuclear power reactors without mapping out an effective strategy for dealing with radioactive waste.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 22