nuclear-news

Nuclear lobbying might succeed in resuscitating the dangerous Monju dream

The [nuclear industry] lobbying has also forestalled scrapping a controversial, 25-year-old fast breeder reactor on the country’s western coast in Fukui prefecture.

25 years and $13 billion after construction began, the Monju fast breeder reactor has managed to produce electricity for only one hour.

“What’s frightening is that it has the property that once it starts running out of control it can’t be stopped,….  What no one can ignore is that Monju is located adjacent to an earthquake fault.

Japan Plans Restart of Controversial Reactor VOA Correspondent Steve Herman was given unprecedented access inside Japan’s Fast Breeder Reactor Research and Development Center at a time when the country is debating its future energy policy in wake of last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster.
kui Pref., Japan.  Steve Herman September 25, 2012 TSURUGA, JAPAN — There has been an ongoing debate in Japan on the best way to obtain a safe and affordable energy supply for the island nation.  The nuclear option suffered a setback in March, 2011, when a massive earthquake and devastating tsunami caused a meltdown in reactors at Japan’s main Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant.

The Japanese government had proposed, but then quickly stepped back
from, phasing out all existing nuclear plants by 2040 (with a loophole
that under-construction reactors would be able to come online and run
for several more decades).

The reversal occurred, in great part, because of pressure from
powerful business organizations, including major corporations with
vested interests in the nuclear industry, that argued expensive
imported fossil fuels for conventional plants will hurt Japan’s
productivity.

The lobbying has also forestalled scrapping a controversial,
25-year-old fast breeder reactor on the country’s western coast in
Fukui prefecture.

Science and Technology Minister Hirofumi Hirano informed Fukui
prefecture Governor Issei Nishikawa on September 18 that the central
government has no plans to scrap the Monju fast-breeder reactor…..
25 years and $13 billion after construction began, the Monju fast breeder reactor has managed to produce electricity for only one hour…….Worries over safety, security

Anti-nuclear activists contend fast breeders are more dangerous than
conventional reactors.

“What’s frightening is that it has the property that once it starts running out of control it can’t be stopped, like any other nuclear reactor and it would load 60 times the explosive power of the Nagasaki nuclear bomb,” wrote Greenpeace Japan’s nuclear campaigner Kazue Suzuki in a recently updated position paper sent to VOA. “Ultimately,
it will end in failure.”…. What no one can ignore is that Monju is
located adjacent to an earthquake fault.

September 28, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, reprocessing