Page 2 of
2 Japanese nuclear power
steams ahead By Hisane Masaki
in December 1995. The operator,
then known as the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel
Development (Donen), tried to cover up the extent
of the accident.
It remains uncertain when
Monju will resume full operations, although its
current operator, the semi-governmental Japan
Atomic Energy Agency, has been preparing Monju
with an eye toward resuming full operations next
year.
The Mihama-3 accident temporarily
halted the utility's plans to
participate in Japan's
"pluthermal" program, the next phase of the
country's nuclear-power development. It involves
the use of mixed uranium and plutonium ("mixed
oxide" or MOX) fuel in civilian power-generating
plants. ("Plutherma" refers to plutonium and
"thermal", ie light-water reactors.)
KEPCO
froze the pluthermal program at its Takahama
nuclear power plant, but Mori has said, "We would
like to reconsider it in a concrete manner after
the safety operations of the Mihama-3 reactor are
confirmed." The program got the nod from the
prefectural government in March 2004, but was put
on ice because of the accident that August.
Japan imports almost all of its oil and is
also the world's largest importer of liquefied
natural gas, so the government attaches great
importance to nuclear-power promotion as a key to
ensuring national energy security. Its New
National Energy Strategy, adopted last May, calls
for, among other things, raising the percentage of
nuclear power in the total national electricity
supply from the current 30% to 40% or more by
2030.
The New National Energy Strategy
also calls for establishing a closed nuclear-fuel
cycle. That means the spent fuel is reprocessed to
remove usable fissile material, which is then
fabricated into mixed-oxide fuels and placed back
in reactor to produce more electricity.
This new phase in Japan's nuclear program
began last March when a nuclear-fuel-reprocessing
plant run by Japan Nuclear Fuel in the Aomori
prefecture village of Rokkasho in northern Japan
started test operations to extract plutonium for
the pluthermal power-generation project. The
Rokkasho plant is scheduled to come into
commercial operation this summer.
Government officials say the recycling of
uranium resources via the nuclear-fuel-cycle
program will contribute to the stability of energy
supplies. According to plans prepared by 11
Japanese power companies, as much as 6.5 tons of
plutonium will be burned annually at nuclear
plants after the pluthermal power-generation
project gets under way.
The Federation of
Electric Power Companies of Japan plans to get
pluthermal power generation under way at 16-18
power plants by the end of fiscal 2010. The
companies have said they plan first to use
plutonium produced overseas, such as in Britain
and France, at the pluthermal plants and start
burning domestically produced plutonium in 2012 or
later.
But it remains to be seen whether
Japanese power companies, facing a serious loss of
public confidence in nuclear-plant safety in the
wake of a spate of accidents, will be able to
carry out their plans. According to one opinion
poll, a majority of Japanese support the promotion
of nuclear power generation while remaining
concerned about safety at nuclear plants.
The Japanese government has approved
several pluthermal programs. But so far only two
of them, in addition to KEPCO, have managed to get
the green light from local governments. Shikoku
Electric Power Co won the approval of the Ehime
prefectural government last October to generate
electricity using MOX fuel at the Ikata-3 nuclear
plant. In March, Kyushu Electric Power Co received
local-government approval for a pluthermal
program, in its case for the Genkai-3 reactor in
Saga prefecture.
Meanwhile, Japan is
revving up its drive to secure uranium abroad as
global demand for nuclear power rises amid high
oil and gas prices and growing environmental
concerns. Major Japanese trading and energy firms
are looking at multibillion-yen investments in
uranium mine projects, while electronics
conglomerate Toshiba Corp purchased Westinghouse,
the US power-plant arm of British Nuclear Fuels,
for about US$5.4 billion last February.
In
anticipation of further growing demand for
uranium, Sumitomo Corp and KEPCO invested in APPAK
LLP, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan's state-run
nuclear power company, Kazatomprom, in January
last year to develop the West Mynkuduk mine.
Sumitomo and KEPCO acquired stakes in APPAK LLP of
25% and 10%, respectively.
Uranium prices
are climbing as energy-hungry China and India are
stepping up construction of nuclear plants to
power their high-flying economies, while some
industrialized countries, including the US and
Britain, are also thinking about building new
plants after suspending construction after nuclear
accidents at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, in the US in 1979 and Chernobyl,
Ukraine, in 1986.
Nuclear-power generation
has begun to come under the spotlight again
because of growing environmental concerns as well
as high prices for oil and gas. Nuclear power
plants generate no carbon dioxide, the primary
greenhouse gas widely blamed for global warming.
Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar
power are not available in sufficient amounts - or
at affordable prices.
Hisane
Masaki is a Tokyo-based journalist,
commentator and scholar on international politics
and economy. Masaki's e-mail address is
yiu45535@nifty.com.
(Copyright 2007 Asia
Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
