Time for Japan to end reprocessing

EDITORIAL: End nuclear fuel recycling program for sake of future generations

March 17, 2013

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201303180075

For years, Japan, under a national policy, has been seeking to build a nuclear fuel recycling system that extracts plutonium from spent fuel through reprocessing for reuse as new fuel. But the “nuclear fuel cycle” has yet to be realized.

In the first place, using plutonium to generate electricity is costlier than using only uranium as nuclear fuel. In addition, the project to develop fast breeder reactors, which are supposed to consume much of the extracted plutonium, has been stalled due to accidents at the Monju prototype reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture. Furthermore, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 has made unclear the outlook for electric power generation through the use of mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, consisting of plutonium and uranium, in conventional reactors.

Japan already has a stockpile of about 45 tons of plutonium, including those whose reprocessing has been entrusted to overseas organizations. Of them, about 10 tons are stored in Japan. They alone are theoretically sufficient to produce more than 1,000 nuclear weapons.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to reduce Japan’s dependence on nuclear power generation as much as possible. Yet he has indicated his intention to keep the nuclear fuel cycle program alive.

The completion of the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, has been delayed repeatedly due to a series of troubles. But the government is hoping to bring the plant into full-scale operation in October this year. If the Rokkasho reprocessing plant comes on stream under the current situation, the amount of plutonium in Japan will likely keep growing. This is a policy that apparently contradicts Abe’s remark about reducing Japan’s dependence on nuclear power generation.

Trying to use plutonium for nuclear power generation is also undesirable from the reality of international politics. North Korea and Iran are engaged in nuclear development programs, making nuclear proliferation a serious security concern for the entire world.

Japan is the only non-nuclear country that is internationally allowed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel on a large scale. This fact reflects the trust of the international community in Japan, which is the only nation to have suffered nuclear attacks and has been adhering to its three non-nuclear principles of neither possessing or manufacturing nuclear weapons nor allowing other countries to bring them into Japanese territory. But Japan will lose the trust of the international community if it keeps accumulating plutonium with no clear plan on how to use it. If other countries try to pursue the use of plutonium by imitating Japan, it will be difficult to stop them.

There are great concerns in the United States as well about Japan’s nuclear fuel reprocessing program. Steve Fetter, a professor at the University of Maryland, who recently served as assistant director at-large in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, has voiced opposition to the reprocessing since he worked in the office. Fetter warns that Japan will find it hard to win international support for its reprocessing program if it starts full-scale operation at the reprocessing plant and, as a result, causes a further increase in its stockpile of plutonium.

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority is expected to work out new safety standards for the reprocessing plant by the end of this year. There is no need for the government to rush to bring the Rokkasho plant online before the new standards are ready.

The best alternative method that can be chosen at the moment is to put spent nuclear fuel in air-cooled casks (dry casks) for several dozen years. The dry cask storage still needs further improvement, but the method has been safely used for decades in Western industrial nations. This would allow the government to postpone its decision on the final disposal method and use future technology to solve the sticky problem.

It is time for Japan to end the reprocessing program so that future generations will not face an increased risk of nuclear proliferation.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 17