By Mitsuta Kanna, FoE Japan<\/p>\n
On April 6, 2022, Friends of the Earth Japan (FoE Japan) issued a statement protesting the decision of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), wholly owned by the Japanese Government, to invest 110 million U.S. dollars in NuScale Power, an American company committed to research and development in small modular reactors (SMRs).<\/p>\n
Even though SMRs are small, they will essentially have the same problems as conventional nuclear power plants: they will generate life-cycle radioactive contamination and nuclear wastes, pose risks of accidents, and have the potential of being targets of terrorist or wartime attacks. While it is still unknown how existing nuclear wastes can be disposed of, the development of SMRs will end up creating another source of nuclear wastes.<\/p>\n
In terms of economy, SMRs are questionable in many respects: Even if the reactor itself is smaller than a conventional power plant, as it will require equally costly peripheral facilities and antiterrorism safeguards, the cost per unit of power generated is likely to be higher.<\/p>\n
In addition, it is unjustifiable to support this venture with public funding.<\/p>\n
JBIC classified this investment project into Category C, \u201cAcquisition of rights and interests without additional capital investment,\u201d as outlined in the JBIC Guidelines for Confirmation of Environmental and Social Considerations. This means that JBIC will not disclose further information about this project.<\/p>\n
The JBIC Guidelines have been established and enhanced because of continual lobbying by NGOs, including FoE Japan, in consideration of the cases where infrastructure or natural resource development projects supported by the loans and investments from Japan\u2019s public funding resulted in international environmental damage or human rights abuses. Public information disclosure and stakeholder participation are major components of the Guidelines.<\/p>\n
JBIC established the Guidelines for Confirmation of Information Disclosure Considerations for Nuclear Sector Projects in December 2017, because information disclosure about nuclear projects is relatively limited, compared with other projects.<\/p>\n
On April 27, 2022, FoE Japan, with Citizen\u2019s Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), held a meeting with JBIC concerning this NuScale issue, communicating our concerns and demanding the cancellation of the investment. We requested that JBIC should disclose as much information as possible about the project.<\/p>\n
FoE\u2019s Statement on this issue can be read at<\/p>\n
foejapan.org\/en\/issue\/20220408\/7435\/<\/a><\/p>\n On April 5, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), a public financial institution wholly owned by the Japanese government, announced an investment in NuScale Power, an American private company1<\/sup>. The investment by JBIC is approximately US$110 million. NuScale is a company that specializes in the research and development of small modular reactors (SMRs)2<\/sup>. The Japanese government outlined in its Basic Energy Plan that it will promote research into small-scale nuclear reactors, and JBIC stated that \u201cthis investment is based on the policy of the Japanese government.\u201d<\/p>\n FoE Japan protests this acquisition of shares by JBIC and requests the withdrawal of its investment for the following reasons.<\/p>\n When JBIC provides loans or guarantees, all projects are screened and categorized based on the \u201cJBIC Guidelines for Confirmation of Environmental and Social Considerations” (hereinafter referred to as the \u201cEnvironmental Guidelines”). For nuclear projects, JBIC has established \u201cGuidelines for Confirmation of Information Disclosure Considerations for Nuclear Sector Projects” (hereinafter referred to as the \u201cthe Information Disclosure Guidelines”), based on which information is disclosed to the public.<\/p>\n The guideline states that,\u00a0\u201cThe Information Disclosure Guidelines are intended to allow JBIC to make the utmost effort to secure proper Information Disclosure Considerations, with the understanding that nuclear safety is the foremost priority with respect to the use of nuclear power, taking into consideration the lessons learned from the accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company\u2019s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.4<\/sup>\u201d<\/em>\u00a0However, under the Environmental Guidelines, this project is classified as Category C5<\/sup>, \u201csectors or projects in which no particular environmental impact is normally expected (stock acquisition without additional capital investment), and as outlined in the Environmental Guidelines, does not have sensitive characteristics, is not located in or near a sensitive area, and does not have a significant impact on human rights<\/em>.\u201d For this reason, little information has been made publicly available.<\/p>\n \u3000While this is an acquisition of shares in a company conducting research, NuScale aims to commercialize small-scale reactors, and it cannot be said that there are no foreseeable environmental, social, or human rights impacts. Rather, it would be a direct association to a project with large-scale and irreversible environmental and social impacts.<\/p>\n \u3000Therefore, JBIC should have originally designated this project as Category A and conducted the necessary environmental review along with appropriate information disclosure. The decision to fund this project was in violation of JBIC\u2019s own guidelines, and JBIC failed to follow the required procedures.<\/p>\n Footnotes:<\/p>\n By Mitsuta Kanna, FoE Japan On April 6, 2022, Friends of the Earth Japan (FoE Japan) issued a statement protesting the decision of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), wholly owned by the Japanese...<\/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":[90,22,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics-of-nuclear-power","category-policy","category-small-modular-reactors-smr"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051","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=6051"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6091,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6051\/revisions\/6091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}SMR is not exempt from risks associated with radioactive contamination, nuclear waste, accidents, terrorism or war<\/em><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>JBIC will make the investment through a special purpose investment entity established by JGC and IHI to invest in NuScale in 2021.<\/li>\n