Has fast breeder Monju been good for Japan’s energy?

Green Action and Mihama-no-Kai Petition Government and Kansai Electric to Investigate Return Shipment MOX Transport Cask for Possible Corrosion For immediate release: 14 June 2002 For more information contact: Aileen Mioko Smith or Stephen Ready Mobile: 090-3620-9251 Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, Japan—- Two Japanese citizen organizations, Green Action and Mihama-no-Kai, who were instrumental in December 1999 in successfully identifying the falsification of safety data for fuel fabricated at BNFL for Japan’s plutonium (MOX) program, joined local citizen groups in Takahama today to protest the arrival of the British-flagged vessel the Pacific Pintail into the port of Takahama. The ship arrived to drop off the transport cask that is scheduled to carry…

–Background Briefing– Why the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant Should Not be Operated [Revised] 11 August 2015 (1:00pm) For immediate release from Sendai nuclear power plant gate, Kagoshima Prefecture. Aileen Mioko Smith Executive Director, Green Action (Japan) Contact: amsmith@gol.com / +81-90-3620-9251 Lack of Consideration of Potential Earthquakes Damage—In Violation of NRA Regulations Seismologist and emeritus professor of Kobe University, Member of the Diet NAIIC (National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission), has stated that the Nuclear Regulation Authority’s Review of the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant is “careless and faulty and will invite a second Genpatsu-Shinsai (Earthquake-Nuclear Combined Disaster)”. Ishibashi points out that the NRA’s Review violates the legal…

Rokkasho. The name might not be well known outside of the anti-nuclear movement, but we hope it will become better known during the NPT Review Conference. Rokkasho is the site of a huge reprocessing plant being constructed on the northern tip of Honshu, the largest island in Japan. In December last year it began uranium trials (testing the processes using depleted uranium). Active trials using spent nuclear fuel are scheduled to begin in December this year and the plant is due to start operations in May 2007. It will then become the first commercial-scale reprocessing plant outside of the nuclear weapons states, extracting 8 tons of plutonium per year from…

Lessons the G8 Can Learn from Japan: the Nuclear Fuel Cycle is an Economic Failure Providing No Energy [Word Doc (US Letter size): 226kb] [Word Doc (A4 size): 234kb] For Immediate Release: 14 July 2006Contact: Philip White (CNIC) 03-5330-9520 Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan—-Japan has opportunistically jumped on President George Bush’s Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) bandwagon in the hope of aiding its troubled nuclear fuel cycle program and gaining recognition for Japan’s unique position as the only Non Nuclear Weapons State (NNWS) member of the Non Proliferation Treaty with access to the full nuclear fuel cycle. It is difficult to imagine, however, that Japan could play a significant role in…

For Immediate Release: 27 January 2003Contact: Aileen Mioko SmithCell: +81-90-3620-9251 Kanazawa, Japan—- Plaintiffs in Fukui Prefecture today won a lawsuit verdict against the Japanese government and the owner operator of Japan’s prototype fast breeder reactor Monju located in Fukui Prefecture. The lawsuit sought to stop the construction and operation of Monju. The epochmaking court verdict overturned a lower court ruling and is the first ever plaintiff victory addressing nuclear power in Japan. Monju had been shut since it had a sodium leak and fire accident in December 1995. Citizens nationwide will be petitioning Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission on 29 January in Tokyo, seeking scrapping of…

May 23, 2009 Saga, Japan MOX Fuel Shipment Arrival Protest Genkai Nuclear Power Plant Citizens oppose arrival of Pacific Pintail and Pacific Heron carrying 20 assemblies of MOX fuel from France to Japan Photo Credit: Saga Hyakunen-no-Kai