Japan’s Troubled Plutonium Program

Genkai Nuclear Power Plant Starts MOX Fuel Use
460,000 Citizens Demand Suspension
Round-the-Clock Sit-In Begins

5 November 2009
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
Contact: Aileen Mioko Smith—–cell: +81-90-3620-9251

Kyoto, Japan—Japan’s beleaguered “pluthernal” program, MOX (mixed plutonium-uranium oxide) fuel use in commercial power plants, got off to a troubled start at Kyushu Electric’s Genkai Unit 3 Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 in Saga Prefecture today with the use of 16 MOX fuel assemblies. Full-time opera-tion of the reactor is scheduled to begin December 2nd.

A round-the-clock sit-in began this morning in front of Kyushu Electric headquarters in Fukuoka City and messages of support are pouring in from around the country. In less than two days 673 NGO groups signed on to protest and petition METI, Kyushu Electric, and Saga Prefecture demanding that use of MOX fuel at Genkai not go forward. The number of sign-on groups continue to grow.
See Kyushu blog for details: (in Japanese) http://carnivals.blog93.fc2.com/blog-entry-43.html

Over 460,000 citizens are demanding that use of MOX fuel at Genkai be suspended. This and Kyu-shu Electric’s rush to start use of MOX fuel caused an unprecedented move by the Saga prefectural legislature last month to demand that the utility rescind its original 2 October start-up date, which it did.

On 28 October Japan’s nuclear regulator NISA (Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency) admitted that there are no legal grounds for the government’s criteria for imported fuel assembly inspection of MOX fuel. This admission was made to an Upper House Diet office. Citizens, and national and Saga prefectural legislators demanded that NISA come to Saga to explain. NISA is yet to do so.

The “pluthermal” program is one part of Japan’s troubled plutonium program. The other two parts which are in deep trouble are the fast breeder program and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Com-mercialization of the fast breeder reactor program has been delayed 8 times and is nearly 80 years behind original schedule (set for early 1970s, now set for “by 2050”.) Commercial operation of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant has been delayed 17 times. Completion of active tests is now set for October 2010. However, with a dysfunctional high-level waste vitrification facility, the future of Rokka-sho is murky.

On 7 October, NISA stated that it couldn’t deny the possibility that the same quality fuel Kansai Elec-tric rejected in August is in Genkai’s MOX fuel. (Kansai Electric rejected one-quarter of the fuel that had been manufactured for use in its Takahama Unit 3 and 4 reactors.) Both utilities’ MOX fuel was fabricated at Areva’s MELOX plant in Marcoule, France.
See Saga Shinbun for NISA admission (English translation available from Green Action):
http://www.sagas.co.jp/news/saga.0.1439726.article.html

Subsequently, Kyushu Electric refused to disclose pertinent information concerning its self-inspection criteria, stating that Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, their principle contractor for MOX fuel fabrication would not allow the disclosure. (The same kind of information has been released by Kansai Electric and their principle contractor Nuclear Fuel Industries, Ltd.) Kyushu Electric stated that MELOX as-sured them that Kyushu’s MOX fuel had no problems like the one found in Kansai Electric MOX fuel, but the utility admitted they were not shown data to confirm this was correct. The concentration of plu-tonium in Genkai’s MOX fuel is unprecedented and exceeds even that used in France.

German nuclear authorities (BMU) initiated an investigatation after Kansai Electric’s rejection of Areva MOX fuel. BMU is reported to take the issue seriously. The status of the investigation is unknown.

“The Japanese government spends 64% of its R&D for energy on nuclear. This program to utilize plu-tonium is the biggest stumbling block to development of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Japan. Prime Minister Hatoyama is woefully ignorant about this reality. The new government must become aware that this detrimental program is merely a lobbyist and bureaucratic haven. It should shut down the program immediately,” stated Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of Green Action.

The shipment of MOX fuel for use at Genkai and two other plants which took place this spring did not meet MLIT (Ministry of Land, Transport and Infrastructure) requirements. On 26 February, twenty Diet members signed on to an open letter addressing this concern. One of them includes the current MLIT minister Seiji Maehara, and, two other ministers in the Hatoyama government. Future shipments can-not meet this requirement (MOX fuel cask drop test) at this point.

In April a report commissioned by 70 nuclear free local authorities in the UK found that the British-flagged vessels which transport the MOX fuel from Europe to Japan have serious design flaws. Ja-pan’s program is dependent on these shipments since there is no commercial MOX fuel plant in Ja-pan to supply electric utilities. Japanese nuclear transports are protested by dozens of en route coun-tries.

Japan’s pluthermal program start-up is a decade behind schedule due to a quality control data falsifi-cation scandal of Kansai Electric MOX fuel in 1999, citizen protest, nuclear inspection data falsifica-tion by Tokyo Electric in 2002, etc. In June electric utilities announced a multi-year delay in the dead-line to use MOX fuel in 16-18 reactors, originally scheduled for 2010.

Press Release:
Genkai Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 Starts “Pluthermal” MOX Fuel Use
460,000 Citizens Demand Suspension—- Round-the-Clock Sit-In Begins

Download PDF version (160KB MB)

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:

1. 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:

1. If NISA has not made contact or inquiries as above indicated, please do so immediately.
2. If NISA has made these contact and inquiries, please make the results public.
3. 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.

TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN:
Petition to freeze the operation of the Rokkasho Nuclear Reprocessing
Plant in order to stop the radioactive contamination of the ocean and air:

Download PDF version (204 KB MB)

Japan’s Worst Pollution Disaster
MINAMATA DISEASE:　Mercury poisoning from industrial waste

For immediate release: 29 June 2009
Contact: Aileen Mioko Smith
Cell: +81-75-701-7223
(Press conference in Japanese at 16:00 today in Nagata-cho area. Location to be determined.)

Tokyo, Japan—-A delegation of wheelchair-bound congenital Minamata disease victims is arriving in Tokyo this morning seeking a meeting with Yukio Hatoyama and the Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) leadership in a last minute effort to halt passage of a Minamata disease bill which will have devastating effects on relief for victims.

It was reported in the media yesterday that Prime Minister Taro Aso considers passage of the Minamata bill to be one of the top priorities before dissolving the Lower House.

The Minamata victims’ delegation will be petitioning Diet members in Tokyo today and tomorrow. Poisoned from birth, the victims —many of them in serious condition– have paid their own way to come to Tokyo to lobby leading Diet members in both Upper and Lower Houses, the Minshuto, and Liberal Democratic party.

This so-called special-measures bill submitted to the Diet is supposed to “aid” uncertified sufferers of Minamata disease.

Minamata Disease is widely recognized as Japan’s worst industrial pollution disaster. In 2004, Japan’s Supreme Court found the government guilty of having caused and spread Minamata disease. At present over 30,000 victims are registered “hoken techo” recipients, not officially certified but recognized as living in the polluted area and qualifying for medical relief.

Prime Minister Taro Aso’s government is attempting to pass a bill into law that would enable the polluter, the Chisso Corporation, to escape the burden of further compensating victims by splitting the company into two entities, separating its profit-making branch from the rest of the company. The law would also nullify the designation of Minamata and surrounding areas as an area plagued with Minamata disease under the pollution-related health damages compensation law.

Victims are concerned that certified patients will not be guaranteed future payments, and that victims yet to be recognized will have no entity from which to seek relief. The bill includes no guarantee the government will pick up costs for compensation. A wide range of Minamata victims’ groups have been petitioning Diet members to stop the bill.

More than 6,000 people are currently waiting to be officially certified by administrative authorities as Minamata disease sufferers.

—————
Green Action is an environmental group based in Kyoto, Japan. It’s director, Aileen Mioko Smith is co-author with W. Eugene Smith of MINAMATA which was nominated for the National Book Award (1976).
For further information on Minamata disease: http://www.aileenarchive.or.jp/minamata_en/index.html

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

Saga Citizens and Consumer Organizations Protest Arrival of MOX Fuel Shipment

Japan Should Terminate MOX (plutonium and uranium)
Fuel, and Rokkasho Reprocessing Programs

For immediate release: May 23, 2009
Contact:
Aileen Mioko Smith(Green Action) +81-90-3620-9251
Philip White (Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center) +81-3-3357-3800

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May 23rd (Tokyo and Kyoto)—Today, at 6:45 am, amidst citizen protest, the British-flagged vessels the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Heron arrived at the port of Kyushu Electric’s Genkai Nuclear Power Plant and unloaded 20 assemblies of MOX fuel for Genkai Unit 3. The nuclear power plant is scheduled to be the first to use MOX fuel on a commercial scale in Japan. The plan is that the fuel will be loaded during the plant’s outage that begins this August. If everything goes according to plan, this will start Japan’s beleaguered MOX fuel utilization program (called the “pluthermal” program).

About 100 Saga citizens and members of the large consumer food cooperative Green Coop of Kyushu, bearing banners reading “STOP MOX” and shouting “No Pluthermal in Saga!” and “Don’t make Saga a Waste Dump!” were at the wooded peninsula where the Genkai plant is located, at the tip of Saga prefecture. They met with Saga Prefecture, Genkai Town, and Kyushu Electric to protest the arrival of the MOX fuel.
The ships first arrived in Japan on May 18th at the Omaezaki port in Shizuoka Prefecture from France, loaded with MOX fuel containing 1.7 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium in 69 assemblies. These assemblies were fabricated for Chubu Electric’s Hamaoka Unit 4 in Shizuoka prefecture (28 assemblies), Genkai Unit 3 (20 assemblies), and Shikoku Electric’s Ikata Unit 3 in Ehime prefecture (21 assemblies). The ships had also been met with citizen protest at the Omaezaki port

“The MOX fuel use program is part of Japan’s failed plutonium program. Use of MOX fuel has already been proven in France to increase rather than decrease plutonium surplus. The pluthermal program would just make Japan’s stockpile problem worse. Japan should terminate its MOX use program, and shut the Rokkasho reprocessing plant which would also only increase Japan’s plutonium stockpile.” said Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action and Hideyuki BAN, Secretary General of Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center. (Japan already has 47 tons of plutonium: 38 tons in France and Britain, and about 9 tons in Japan.

The pluthermal program is supposed to “consume” some of this plutonium.)

Earlier, on May 10th, Saga citizens held a rally protesting Kyushu Electric’s MOX fuel program. Saga citizens now aim to gather 400,000 signatures from prefectural citizens (Saga’s total population: 850,000) by the end of August. The petition is directed to governor Yasushi Furukawa and seeks the end to the MOX fuel program.
On May 18th, a total of 420 citizen, consumer, peace, and professional organizations from every prefecture in Japan submitted a petition to the Japanese government stating the pluthermal program forces MOX spent fuel waste onto the prefectures. (Currently, there is no destination for spent MOX fuel.)

To date, virtually none of the plutonium shipped from Europe to Japan, either in the form of plutonium dioxide or MOX fuel, has actually been used. A total of approximately 2.5 tons had been shipped (between 1984 and 2001), of which only about 30kg has been used (in Monju in 1995 before the prototype reactor had a sodium lead and fire accident).

Japan’s MOX fuel utilization program was to start in 1999. However, a quality control data falsification scandal, local citizen referendum, falsification of nuclear power plant inspection data, and a nuclear accident have delayed the program.

In April 2009, a report commissioned by 70 nuclear free local authorities in the UK found that the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Heron have serious design flaws.

It was reported on May 19th that the Pacific Heron had developed problems in one of its engines during the voyage but was able to continue using another independent engine. (No further details are known at the time of this writing.)

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Green Action
Suite 103, 22-75 Tanaka Sekiden-cho
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8203
Tel：+81-75-701-7223 Fax：+81-75-702-1952
Cell: +81-90-3620-9251
amsmith@gol.com

Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center
Akebonobashi Co-op 2F-B, 8-5 Sumiyoshi-cho,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0065, Japan
Tel: +81-3-3357-3800 Fax: +81-3-3357-3801
cnic@nifty.com

For further information on the MOX fuel shipment see:
Green Action website: MOX Fuel Shipment – Issues and Controversies
http://www.greenaction-japan.org/modules/wordpress0/index.php?p=68

Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center website, MOX and Pluthermal page:
http://cnic.jp/english/topics/cycle/MOX/index.html

---

Saga Citizens and Consumer Organizations Protest Arrival of MOX Fuel Shipment
Japan Should Terminate MOX (plutonium and uranium)Fuel, and RokkashoReprocessing Programs
Download PDF version (336KB)

Japan Should Terminate MOX (plutonium and uranium)
Fuel Program, Cease All Shipments from Europe

Japan Should Terminate Fast Breeder Reactor and Reprocessing Programs

For immediate release: May 18, 2009
Contact:
Aileen Mioko Smith (Green Action) 090-3620-9251
Philip White (Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center) +81-3-3357-3800

“We call on the Japanese government and electric utilities to terminate this and future MOX fuel shipments and cease from placing en route countries at risk. We call on countries potentially on the route of future MOX fuel shipments to join us in demanding the termination of these dangerous shipments” stated BAN Hideyuki, secretary-general of Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), Aileen Mioko SMITH, executive director of Green Action, and HOSHIKAWA Jun, executive director of Greenpeace Japan. Regional organizations which have protested past Japanese nuclear shipments include CARICOM (Caribbean Community), ACP(African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, SIDS (Small Island Developing States), and PIF (Pacific Islands Forum).

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May 18, Tokyo, Japan ― Today, May 18 2009, two British-flagged vessels, the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Heron arrived in Japan from France carrying 1.7 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium contained in 69 assemblies of MOX (mixed plutonium and uranium oxide) fuel. This is the world’s largest shipment of plutonium ever undertaken.

The MOX fuel, made from plutonium separated from Japanese spent fuel shipped to France for reprocessing, is to be used at the nuclear power plants of three Japanese electric utilities: Kyushu, Chubu, and Shikoku Electric Power. Fuel assemblies were delivered today to the Hamaoka Unit 4 plant of Chubu Electric. The ships will continue on to the Ikata Unit 3 plant in Ehime Prefecture and the Genkai Unit 3 plant in Saga Prefecture to deliver the remaining assemblies.

More shipments from France to more plants are scheduled to follow. Japanese nuclear power plants are designed to use uranium fuel, not MOX fuel.

MOX fuel shipments are unsafe and trample on the right of en route countries to protect their citizens and environment

On March 18th, Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (member of US Congress from the Territory of American Samoa) in a statement made on the floor of the US House of Representatives protested this latest MOX fuel shipment, stating, “This latest shipment of MOX fuel complements earlier shipments of spent fuel, about 170, from Japan to Europe. As usual, plans for this latest shipment, the largest so far, was covered in shrouds of secrecy without prior consultation or notification of en-route states. Yet, any accident involving the ships or their cargo could have catastrophic consequences on the environment and the population of en-route states. Moreover, with the increasing threat of piracy, the transported plutonium MOX fuel could easily fall in the hands of terrorists…”

Faleomavaega continues, “This unnecessary and unjustifiable shipment provides another example of the unacceptable risks and adverse impact the use of nuclear power and nuclear materials have on the environment and the lives of those involved. It demonstrates once again the imperialistic behavior of some major countries at the expense of others…. Europe, Japan and all nuclear states, should keep their nuclear materials and waste in their own backyard, and not endanger the lives of others.”

In April 2009, a report commissioned by 70 nuclear free local authorities in the UK found that the British-flagged vessels the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Heron have serious design flaws. The Pacific Pintail (built in 1987) is still operating despite having been built to the same design and construction standards as predecessor vessels decommissioned or scrapped following discovery of “run away” corrosion. The Pacific Heron (built in 2008) has only small modifications from the original design of earlier ships. Available details of these modifications do not describe measures to prevent “run away” corrosion.

The report found both the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Heron are vulnerable to build-up of gas or moisture in their double-skinned hulls and “run away corrosion.” The shippers boast that the ships are double-hulled, where in fact 40% of each vessel is only single-skinned hull. The study also found that claims that the ships are unsinkable “lack scientific and technical credibility.” Moreover, emergency plans for coping with accidents are non-existent.

The Pacific Pintail and Pacific Heron should never again be used for shipping MOX fuel.

Japan’s plutonium utilization program should be terminated

This MOX fuel shipment is part of Japan’s failed plutonium program. Originally begun in 1956, the program was to commercialize the fast breeder reactor by around 1970. The breeder development program is now 80 years behind schedule, with commercialization set for “around 2050.” A commercial reprocessing plant was to be operational at Rokkasho by 1989, but has been delayed 16 times.

Both the fast breeder program and reprocessing program are in dire straits. There is now no date set for re-starting Monju, the prototype fast breeder reactor shutdown since a sodium fire accident in 1995, and the project is facing organizational collapse. The Rokkasho reprocessing plant faces serious problems with its high-level waste vitrification facility and may never successfully operate.

Japan has built up tons of surplus plutonium in the meantime, and MOX fuel utilization in Japanese commercial reactors is Japan’s attempt to consume some of that surplus plutonium, originally intended for the fast breeder reactor program. (Japan’s plutonium surplus now stands at 38 tons of Japanese plutonium in France and the UK, and around 9 tons in Japan.) France’s attempt to reduce its own stockpile of plutonium by using MOX fuel in its commercial nuclear power plants should serve as an example of how this program fails. The program increased rather than decreased France’s plutonium surplus.

Japan’s MOX fuel utilization program was to start in 1999. However, a quality control data falsification scandal, local citizen referendum, falsification of nuclear power plant inspection data, and a nuclear accident have delayed the program. Facing adamant local citizen opposition, the government’s response was not to terminate the program but to implement coercive measures by jacking up subsidies, thus making it nearly impossible for local authorities to refuse the program.

Instead of terminating the failed fast breeder and reprocessing programs, the Japanese government’s response was to elevate these failed projects to programs “central to the nation’s technological development.” The MOX fuel program is a by-product necessary for shoring up these failed programs.

Citizens Protest MOX Program

Citizens protested the arrival of the MOX shipment in Omaezaki today. Protests were also held in Shizuoka and Saga on May 10. Aerial photos of a “No MOX” message formed by people at the protest in Saga are available on the following URL: http://www.greenaction-japan.org/modules/entop2/

Citizen, consumer, and peace groups from every prefecture in Japan today submitted a petition to the Japanese government in opposition to the MOX fuel program and met with government officials from METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), the Atomic Energy Commission, and MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), stating the program forces nuclear waste onto the prefectures.

Hideyuki Ban
Co-Director
Citizens Nuclear Information Center

HOSHIKAWA Jun
Executive Director
Greenpeace Japan

Aileen Mioko SMITH
Executive Director
Green Action

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Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center
Akebonobashi Co-op 2F-B, 8-5 Sumiyoshi-cho,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 162-0065, Japan
Tel: +81-3-3357-3800 Fax: +81-3-3357-3801
cnic@nifty.com

Green Action
Suite 103, 22-75 Tanaka Sekiden-cho
Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8203
Tel：+81-75-701-7223 Fax：+81-75-702-1952
Cell: +81-90-3620-9251
amsmith@gol.com

Greenpeace Japan
NF bldg 2F 8-13-11 Nishi-Shinjuku
Shinjuku-ku Tokyo 160-0023
Tel：+81-3-5338-9800 Fax：+81-3-5338-9817

For further information on the MOX fuel shipment see:
Green Action website: MOX Fuel Shipment ― Issues and Controversies
http://www.greenaction-japan.org/modules/wordpress0/index.php?p=68

Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center website, MOX and Pluthermal page:
http://cnic.jp/english/topics/cycle/MOX/index.html

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Citizens Protest Japanese MOX Shipment: Joint Statement by CNIC, Green Action and Greenpeace Japan
Japan Should Terminate MOX (plutonium and uranium) Fuel Program,
Cease All Shipments from Europe
Japan Should Terminate Fast Breeder Reactor and Reprocessing Programs
Download PDF version (520KB)

Japan’s Plutonium Program

MOX Fuel Shipment 2009: Issues and Controversies

MOX Fuel Shipment 2009: Issues and Controversies
Presented to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
by Aileen Mioko Smith (Executive Director of Green Action)
Download PDF version (4.3 MB)

Japan’s Failed Nuclear Fuel Cycle

Japan’s Failed Nuclear Fuel Cycle
Presented to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan
by Hideyuki Ban, Co-Director, Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center(CNIC)
Download PDF version (270 KB)

The text accompanying Hideyuki Ban’s presentation:
Japan’s MOX Program and Nuclear Proliferation

11 May 2009

STATEMENT BY JAPANESE AND RUSSIAN ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS
CONSEQUENCES OF JAPAN-RUSSIA NUCLEAR COOPERATION AGREEMENT

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will arrive in Tokyo today. During his visit he will meet Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso. According to media reports, they may sign a new nuclear cooperation agreement between the two countries. The agreement will allow Japanese nuclear material to be sent to Russia.

Japan and Russia have for several years been considering the possibility of extracting uranium from spent nuclear fuel reprocessed in the UK and France and re-enriching it in Russia. The re-enriched uranium could be used in nuclear fuel for Japanese nuclear power plants, but there have also been suggestions that nuclear fuel containing Japanese uranium could be exported to third countries.

It is clear that the Russian uranium enrichment plant in Angarsk will serve as the main enrichment plant for such a deal. Russia is establishing a so-called “international center” for uranium enrichment at Angarsk. The aim of the center is to provide a guaranteed supply of uranium fuel for countries which do not enrich uranium themselves, including for countries under international sanctions such as Iran.

If a deal opening the way for reprocessed uranium to be re-enriched is signed between Japan and Russia, uranium extracted from Japanese spent fuel could be transported nearly 10,000 km to the Angarsk uranium enrichment plant near lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Transportation over such a long distance may become a target for terrorist attack, or cause transport accidents leading to large releases of radioactivity.

Uranium enrichment and the production of nuclear fuel result in enormous amounts of radioactive waste, including depleted uranium, which has to be stored and isolated from the environment permanently. According to Russian environmental groups, there is over 100,000 tons of radioactive waste already stored in Angarsk. The Russian nuclear industry has no plan for disposal of that waste. The waste is stored under the open sky in partly corroded containers and poses a threat of radioactive leakages. Any such leakages would contaminate the region around Angarsk and could also damage the ecosystem around Lake Baikal, the largest reservoir of non-salt water on earth.

There are also concerns that Japan’s proposal to send uranium to Russia for enrichment could further undermine the international non-proliferation regime. Japan cannot be confident that Japanese nuclear material will not be diverted to Iran, or to other countries suspected of developing nuclear weapons. Russia traditionally uses its own resources (including down-blending of highly enriched uranium to the enrichment level of uranium fuel for light-water reactors) to meet its own demand. Uranium sourced from other countries is more likely to be exported. The inadequacy of IAEA safeguards in nuclear weapons states and Russia’s supply of fuel for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant are grounds for serious concern. No Russian facilities are included in IAEA’s latest list of safeguarded facilities.

Local residents are totally opposed to the plan of establishing an international center for uranium enrichment and new enrichment contracts. Protests have been happening since December 2006. People are demanding that authorities withdraw from new enrichment contracts in order to stop the growth of radioactive waste stockpiles near the highly sensitive Baikal ecosystem. Both Japan and Russia must uphold democratic values and respect the wishes of the local residents. We call on both governments not to sign any agreement that permits the re-enrichment of Japanese reprocessed uranium in Russia.

Contact information:
Green Action: +81-75-701-7223 or +81-90-3620-9251 (Aileen Mioko Smith)
email: amsmith@gol.com
Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center: +81-3-3357-3800 (Philip White)
email: cnic@nifty.com
Ecodefense (Moscow, Russia): +7-985-7766281 or 903-2997584 (Vladimir Slivyak)
email: ecodefense@online.ru

IAEA “does not differenciate between different isotopic grades of plutonium”
Download PDF (500KB)