Nuke Info Tokyo No. 138 (September/October 2010)

Three Years Since the Chuetsu-oki Earthquake
“We don’t need the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station” – report of demonstration and public meeting.

Accident at Monju
A 3 ton fuel loading device was dropped into the reactor.

Two year delay for Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant
On September 10 Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd (JNFL) announced that the commencement of commercial operations of its Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant would be delayed by two years from October this year to October 2012. This is the eighteenth time the start date has been delayed.

Construction of Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility Begins
As electric power companies wrestle with the problem of what to do with their spent nuclear fuel, this will be the first centralized away-from-reactor interim spent fuel storage facility in Japan.

Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons – the Unbreakable Connection
Japan’s nuclear export plans and bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements – how they contribute to nuclear proliferation.

US NGOs Warn Japanese Government of Financial Risks of Investing in US Nuclear Power Plants
A letter endorsed by 72 US NGOs was sent to the Japanese Government on August 11.

Japan’s Policy on Disposal of Radioactive Waste
In Japan, radioactive waste is classified either as “high-level” or “low-level”. The term “medium-level radioactive waste” is not used in Japan. Japan’s policy is to reprocess spent nuclear fuel (the failed “closed nuclear fuel cycle” concept), so the only “high-level radioactive waste” (HLW) will be the vitrified canisters that are produced at the reprocessing plant. Everything else is lumped together into the “low-level radioactive waste” (LLW) category.

Workers’ Radiation Exposure Data for FY2009
The total collective dose in FY2009 for people working at nuclear power plants was 82.08 person sieverts. According to NISA’s report, no one incurred a dose exceeding 20 milli-sieverts. However, the true situation is obscured in NISA’s data.

Group Intro.: Citizen Science Initiative Japan, Exposure to Low Level Radiation Research Group
The basis for the Research Group’s study is a book entitled Atomic Bomb Studies Under the US Military Occupation, written by one of the group’s members, the late Yukuo Sasamoto.

News Watch
— Lawsuit to Stop the Use of MOX Fuel at Genkai-3
—Lawsuit to Stop Construction of Ohma Nuclear Power Plant
—Fukushima 1-3 Begins Operating with MOX Fuel
—Part of KEPCO’s MOX Fuel Fabrication Plans Postponed
—Conceptual designs for next generation LWR
—Government-private sector sales pitch to Vietnam
—Troubles at nuclear fuel plant covered up
—Another radioactive leak at Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant