EMERGENCY OPEN LETTER:
QUESTIONS AND PETITION TO THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT’S NUCLEAR REGULATORY AUTHORITY
We Ask that You Contact the Foreign Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authorities
Concerning the Safety and Quality Assurance of the MOX Fuel Fabricated at the French company Areva’s Melox plant
On 30 September, Kyushu Electric made public that it will be loading MOX fuel into its Genkai Unit 3 nuclear power plant as early as 3 October. In the meantime, a serious safety and quality assurance problem has emerged concerning the MOX fuel fabricated at the French company Areva’s Melox plant. Kansai Electric has found that some 350,000 pellets of the MOX fuel fabricated for its Takahama Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4 have been found to be defective in one category of its self-inspection regime and has decided not to use these pellets. Kansai Electric has stated that when it asked Areva’s Melox plant for detailed data concerning these pellets, it was refused the data, and that it has not been able to decisively determine what caused this defect. Moreover, in its 19 August press release, Kansai Electric states, "The Melox Company stated that, on the basis of former experience,
these pellets in question could be used as MOX fuel.
As a result, concern has risen as to whether the safety and quality assurance of MOX fuel fabricated by Areva’s Melox plant for not only Kyushu Electric fuel but the fuel being used outside of Japan such as France and Germany has been ensured.
As a result of lessons learned from BNFL MOX fuel quality control data falsification (1999), the Japanese government has stated that it will expend all possible means including exchanging communications with nuclear safety authorities abroad, to assure the safety of MOX fuel. We therefore ask NISA: Have nuclear safety regulatory authorities abroad undertaken any measures toward the electric utilities in their purview which use MOX fuel?
Whereas, due to the concerns above, we submit the following question and petition.We ask for your rapid response.
QUESTION:
- Have you made contact and submitted inquiries with nuclear safety regulatory authorities abroad concerning the safety and quality assurance of the French company Areva’s MOX fuel?
PETITION:
- If NISA has not made contact or inquiries as above indicated, please do so immediately.
- If NISA has made these contact and inquiries, please make the results public.
- Until you have made this contact and inquiries and have confirmed that the safety and quality assurance of the MOX fuel has been ensured, delay and do not approve the loading of MOX fuel into Genkai Unit 3.