Joint letter signed by U.S., Japanese, and Korean NGOs urging the U.S. to suspend consent for the transport of over 900kg of plutonium through the East Sea/Japan Sea to Kansai Electric’s Takahama nuclear power plant. The shipment is MOX (plutonium uranium) fuel reported to be leaving Cherbourg, France the week of April 14th. Kansai Electric has stated it is as yet undetermined whether the fuel will be used.
April 12th 2013
Dear Secretary of State John Kerry:
cc: senior State Department staff, Senate Foreign Relations/House Foreign Affairs
We are writing to you to express our concern at plans by the United Kingdom, France and Japan to resume shipments of weapons-usable plutonium to Japan. The shipment has direct implications for the effectiveness of U.S. non-proliferation and security policies at a time when tensions in Northeast Asia are rising. Therefore we believe there is every need for U.S. consent for this shipment to be suspended.
We understand that during the week of April 14th a cargo of 20 plutonium Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies, manufactured in France by AREVA and containing in excess of 900 kilograms of weapons-usable plutonium, will be loaded on to one of the UK- flagged armed freighters Pacific Egret or Pacific Heron, in the port of Cherbourg, France. The shipment will then depart for the nuclear reactor port at Takahama in western Japan.
Our concerns over this shipment, the first since the devastating Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in March 2011, include the following:
- No demand for plutonium fuel in Japan , no possibility for its use now, utility admits it is undetermined whether or not the fuel to be transported will be used ;
- Japan continuing to acquire, stockpile and attempt to scale up its use of weapons-usable plutonium, including efforts to start-up and operate the Rokkasho reprocessing plant;
- A flawed U.S. policy of supporting Japan’s plutonium program which does not contribute to, but on the contrary distracts from stabilizing on-going non-proliferation efforts in East Asia;
- Japan’s program and its U.S. support undermining on-going U.S. Republic of Korea (ROK) Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (123) negotiations, including encouraging ROK to seek reprocessing and separated plutonium;
- The impact of the shipment on exacerbating further tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the East Sea/Sea of Japan, particularly in relation to the nuclear program of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK); and,
- Inadequate transport security plan, including for passage through the Korea Strait.
As the U.S. State Department and associated agencies review and sign off on the security plan for shipments of plutonium from Europe to Japan, we urge you to immediately undertake the following actions:
- conduct a new risk assessment on both the demand in Japan for such plutonium and the risks of shipping weapons-usable plutonium through the Korea Strait at this time;
- inform Japan and France that U.S. consent has been suspended pending an updated review;
- inform the U.S. Congress that the State Department is conducting a new risk assessment and that consent has been suspended; and finally,
- initiate a wide-ranging U.S. review of its policy concerning Japan’s reprocessing and plutonium-use program, which has resulted in Japan acquiring stocks of over 44,000 kg of weapons-usable plutonium with no practical peaceful use; and,
- no amendment to ROK-U.S 123 Agreement permitting development of reprocessing or enrichment program by the Republic of Korea.
Download: Joint letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry regarding MOX fuel shipment to Japan