Restart nuclear power plant

Kyushu Electric Power Company restarted nuclear power plant reactor 1 at Sendai complex, located in western part of Japan for the first time in two years yesterday, which would add radioactive wastes Japan possesses in domestic and overseas equivalent to the amount for 5000 nuclear warheads.

The U.S. is disposing of used fuel as waste, burying under the ground; Japan regards it as asset reprocessing into plutonium fuel at nuclear reprocessing plant of the UK and France.

Japan struggled in vain to discard used fuel so called high level radioactive wastes abroad once. The Japanese government had at least two plans to build nuclear waste storage facility: in the Marshall Islands in the 1980’s, in Mongolia approximately 5 years ago. Those plans hit setback for objection there. The London treaty forbids transfer of wastes another country. It is still difficult for Japan of small countries to bury high level radioactive wastes underground. It is all the more impossible to just keep a large number of used fuel rods at each nuclear power generation facilities in Japan because of the rising critical appraisal of the potential development of the nuclear weapons in Japan. Japan has no choice but to reprocessing nuclear wastes and using it. But we have only one operating reactor out of 54 reactors for reprocessed fuel in the present. Where are radioactive wastes going?

Actually, even after the accident of Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 11th 2011, the Japanese Government is pushing export of nuclear power plants. I bet the Japanese government thinks that to export nuclear power plants including reprocessed fuel can solve the obstacle accumulating wastes. Japan can transport nuclear materials as asset instead of waste that is prohibited to transfer beyond country by the London treaty. The NPT treaty prohibits export of radioactive materials also. However, the U.S. may overlook export of radioactive materials from Japan to customers because the U. S. has already overlooked that Japan transferred used fuel between Japan and the U.K. or France.

But the problem is that strong earthquakes happen frequently in Taiwan as well as Japan. I never want to see a disaster like Fukushima anymore. Tens of thousands of people are still evacuated apart from their home.

                        discarded rice field of 30 kilometers from Fukushima daiichi power plant (June 2011)