{"id":4509,"date":"2019-08-02T17:14:59","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T08:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cnic.jp\/english\/?p=4509"},"modified":"2019-08-05T17:45:13","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T08:45:13","slug":"news-watch-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/?p=4509","title":{"rendered":"News Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>International Round Table on final Disposal\nof HLW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Participants of the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global\nEnvironment for Sustainable Growth, held in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture on\nJune 15-16, agreed to set up an \u201cinternational roundtable on final disposal\u201d of\nhigh-level radioactive wastes that Japan proposed. The Ministry of Economy,\nTrade and Industry (METI) says, \u201cWe are planning to discuss and share\nexperiences and knowledge of public understanding activities, and research\ncooperation and personnel exchange, using underground research facilities in\neach country, in order to realize final disposal. As a result of the discussion\nin the International Roundtable, we are planning to formulate the basic\nstrategies and best practices for international cooperation in realizing final\ndisposal, and we except that they will contribute to encourage further efforts made\nby each country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first session will be held in Paris in mid-October with the cooperation of OECD\/NEA, and discussions will continue at subsequent sessions to be held about once a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Memorandum of Cooperation between Japan\nand France in the Field of Energy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the Japan-France Summit Meeting on June 26, held in conjunction with the G20 Osaka Summit, a \u201cMemorandum of Cooperation on Innovation for Energy Transition\u201d was exchanged between METI and France\u2019s Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition. In addition to sharing knowledge on renewable energy and energy saving, under the memorandum they will continue their partnership on decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station and final disposal of high-level radioactive wastes and cooperate to encourage industrial collaboration in nuclear energy in other countries. On the same day, a general agreement on cooperation for development of fast reactors was exchanged between METI, Japan\u2019s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and France\u2019s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission. The following four forms of cooperation were mentioned:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>R&amp;D based on simulation of and experiments on fast reactors<\/li><li>Exchange of technical information and data<\/li><li>Samples and materials for experimenting and evaluation<\/li><li>Exchange and sharing of instruments<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Sasakawa Peace Foundation Offers Proposals to Government on Surplus Plutonium<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Sasakawa Peace Foundation held a press conference on June 4, announcing its \u201cProposals to the Japanese government concerning international management of plutonium &#8211; aiming for reduction in plutonium stocks and adoption of new international norms.\u201d The proposal consists of a summarization of arguments by the Working Group<a> <\/a>on New Initiatives for Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Non-Proliferation, which is chaired by Tatsujiro Suzuki, vice-director of the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (RECNA) at Nagasaki University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The five main points of the proposal are (1) Pursuing international storage of plutonium: consigning \u201cexcess\u201d plutonium to the custody of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); (2) Strengthening the international Guidelines for the Management of Plutonium that are currently the international norms: Propose new international norms for reducing existing stocks based on the decision of Japan\u2019s Atomic Energy Commission, and restrain reprocessing; (3) International cooperation toward reduction of existing stocks: establishing an international forum for disposal; (4) Give priority to dry storage for management of spent nuclear fuel, and have a third-party agency assess options for the nuclear fuel cycle, and (5) Playing a leading role in globally promoting the new international norms for plutonium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Gross Business Expenses of Rokkasho\nReprocessing Plant to Reach About 13.94 Trillion Yen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Nuclear Reprocessing Organization of Japan (NuRO) announced on June\n18 that the expected gross business expenses of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant\nwould exceed the previous year\u2019s estimation by about 10 billion yen, reaching\nabout 13.94 trillion yen (about $129 billion). The gross business expenses of\nthe plant\u2019s MOX fuel fabrication facilities increased by about 100 million yen,\nreaching about 2.33 trillion yen (about $21 billion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When they were reported by the Federation of Electric Power Companies\nto the Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy\u2019s subcommittee on\nelectric power companies in 2003, these gross business expenses were about 1.1\ntrillion yen for the reprocessing plant and about 119 billion yen for the MOX\nfuel fabrication plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Nuclear Safety Countermeasure Expenses\nSkyrocketing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nuclear safety countermeasure expenses, according to the Nikkei daily\nin a report on July 9, are greatly exceeding initial estimations by Japan\u2019s\nelectric power companies. When the Nikkei held a hearing with ten companies owning\nnuclear power plants (NPPs) and one that was constructing one, the total\nexpenses came to about 4.8 trillion yen as of June this year. In January 2013,\nthese costs were estimated at roughly 900 billion yen, so they have risen by a\nlittle under 4 trillion yen in the intervening six and a half years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Shikoku Electric Power Co. expects expenses of 190 billion yen for\none reactor, the Ikata NPP Unit 3, accounting for nearly 60% of its\nconstruction expenses of 319 billion yen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>List of Fraudulent Products Delivered to\nNuclear Power Plants<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Nuclear Regulation Agency compiled a report titled \u201cOn the state of response by nuclear power companies to fraudulent behavior by manufacturing companies\u201d on June 26, providing it to the Nuclear Regulation Authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following is a list of major cases involving nuclear power\nfacilities, with 13 manufacturing companies found to have engaged in\ninappropriate actions such as not following procedures during inspections, fabrication\nof inspection data and falsification of analytical results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(1) Kobe Steel, Ltd. and other companies in its group (metallic\nmaterials, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(2) Mitsubishi Materials Corporation and its subsidiaries (sealants,\naluminum pipes, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(3) A subsidiary of Toray Industries, Inc. (tire cord, etc.)*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(4) A subsidiary of AGC Inc. (centrifuge tubes)*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(5) Ube Industries, Ltd. and other companies in its group (insulated coating\nmaterials, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(6) NGK Insulators, Ltd. (insulators, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(7) Hitachi Chemical Company, Ltd. (lead storage batteries, electrolytic\ncondensers, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(8) Fujikura Ltd. and other companies in its group (cables, etc.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(9) Tokyo Keiki Inc. (hydraulic equipment)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(10) KYB Corporation and its subsidiaries (oil dampers\nfor aseismic base isolation and vibration control)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(11) A subsidiary of Kawakin Holdings Co. Ltd. (oil\ndampers for aseismic base isolation and vibration control)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(12) A subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation\n(rubber products)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(13) Another subsidiary of Mitsubishi Electric\nCorporation (cast iron products)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">* Note that cases (3) and (4) have not been confirmed\nas related to nuclear power facility safety, and information about case (13) is\nstill being gathered at present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The report notes, \u201cIn several of these cases, these\nproducts were delivered to nuclear power facilities and were actually being\nused, but in each case the operators visited the manufacturers to confirm their\nquality assurance systems and data on past inspections and testing. They deemed\nthe products in question to have had no issues with regard to safety. Also, in\ncases where they have been unable to verify past data that were previously lost,\nthey have been taking measures such as confirming safety through additional\ninspections or testing or replacing the products in question with substitutes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International Round Table on final Disposal of HLW Participants of the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Energy Transitions and Global Environment for Sustainable Growth, held in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture on June 15-16, agreed to set&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4509"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4550,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4509\/revisions\/4550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}