Contact:
Aileen Mioko Smith (Green Action)
Cell: 090-3620-9251
Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center
Tel: 03-5330-9520
5 January 2006 (Kyoto, Japan)—Japanese NGOs today sent a letter to IAEA Director
General Mohamed ElBaradei and the Board of Governors urging the inter-governmental body to discuss and take action to ensure Japan upholds its 1997 commitment made to the international organization not to produce surplus plutonium.
Testing scheduled to take place next month at the Rokkasho reprocessing plant will separate out 4 tons of plutonium from spent nuclear fuel. This will violate the commitment Japan made to the IAEA because the plutonium cannot be consumed.
The petition sent to the IAEA by Green Action, Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center and Greenpeace Japan states, “Japan originally made this commitment in the interests of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, a field in which it is a valuable leader. Given the heightened political tension around disarmament and non-proliferation in North East Asia, and its role as Chair of the IAEA Board of Governors, Japan should not renege on this commitment.”
Green Action director Aileen Mioko Smith stated, “Japanese utilities will shortly be going public with a fabricated plutonium utilization plan. The Japanese government is intending to approve it. Instead Japan should keep its promise to the IAEA and indefinitely postpone testing at the Rokkasho reprocessing plant.”
Japan already has over 42 tons of surplus plutonium in Europe and Japan.