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MissingSky101
NHK Documentary: Nuclear Waste Managing a Lethal Legacy
It's been about 2 years since the accident. Nuclear power plants across the country still store huge amounts of spent fuel. No one has found a way to deal with the spent fuel. Nor no sites have been found for its final disposal. The spent fuel kept piling up. It now amounts to 17 thousand tons for Japan as a whole. Some nuclear plants could run out of storage space in about 2 years if they were to go back online. What can be done about this nuclear waste which has nowhere to go? We'll explore several paths to resolving this critical issue.
Air date; 3/22/13
21m- reprocessing plants in Europe issues
29ｍ- in Switzerland
Dried steel casked
storage space is used to store spent fuel rods after being cooled.
The container
completely shuts radiation and doesn’t need electricity. Switzerland is planning to store in this way
for 40 years until they build the final disposal site.
Japanese regulation
is required all the spent fuel need to be reprocessed. So we can’t dispose the spent fuel in the
disposal place like it is in Switzerland.
Rokkashomura have been encountering many problems and it’s not been full scale of operation.
Consequently number of spent fuel have been piling up throughout the
nations. Even the disposal site is being
built; the regulation will prohibit it to store without reprocessing. Unless Rokkashomura being operated nuclear
business will be affected. So all spent
fuel needs to be reprocessed.
Reprocessing plant is to separate fuel and radioactive waste.
The extracted fuels
from the reprocessing plant would be multiplied in the fast breeder reactor and
be recycled repeatedly.
It was to be a dream nuclear fuel cycle for unlimited power to produce for
resourced poor Japan.
In 1995 Monju Fast
Breeder reactor sodium leak accident occurred.
Since then it has been stopped operating. The reactor never be operational. The plan came to a dead end. we can't deceipt the public any more. A person engaged in Japan’s energy
policy granted our interview. Some
people estimated that running of reprocessing plant would cost 11 trillion
(paid by ratepayers) yen for 40 years running following the start of the
operation. We knew the fast breeder reactor would not be completed e
conomically and politically a meaningless to continue. JNS was established by electric power
companies.
some shareholders in
Tepco started to feel doubtful Rokkasho
was too costly. Why the Japanese
government and power companies continued the project. Spent fuel from many different areas already
had sen to the recycled plants. If
reprocessing plant halted then spent fuel material won't be recycled. and the
Aomori government is entitled to send back spent fuel if that happened. The
power plants would be overwhelmed with returned fuel. Maybe they are forced to suspend their
operations. We learned this from the
former TEPCO director. Nuclear power
plants won't be able to operate if we processing is abandoned. . As
far as they are concerned reprocessing is a matter of life or death. Talks were held between government and power
companies. Both sides agreed to place a
priority of continuing the nuclear power program regardless of the reprocessing
plants costs. The expensive reprocessing
plants revived. Power companies and the
Ministry of economy, trade and industry failed to agree on a frame work to
eliminate huge financial burden placed on the public. We couldn’t face a fact that we created that
such expensive white elephant.
Then the issue
resurfaced after the Fukushima nuclear accident..
Last year the
government reviewed the reprocessing project.
The Aomori government, Miura issued a vigorously protest.
"We are worry that spent fuel will remain in Aomori. This is not what we agreed on. If it’s not going to be reprocessed it must be returned. Aomori is not a dumping ground for nuclear waste."
The government decided not to change the policy. In the back ground with the conflicting interests of the parties involved.
"We are worry that spent fuel will remain in Aomori. This is not what we agreed on. If it’s not going to be reprocessed it must be returned. Aomori is not a dumping ground for nuclear waste."
The government decided not to change the policy. In the back ground with the conflicting interests of the parties involved.
The Atomic Energy
Commission hold 23 closed meetings after the Fukushima accident. Even as the government reviewed the policy,
JNFL, ministry of trade and industry, Tepco company, cabinet office officers
and Atomic Energy Commission were meeting to discuss the issue.
Cabinet Office official: You have to be running the reprocessing plant,
right?
JNJL: thank you for
understanding.
Cabinet office
official: Well then, that's it. We can't
work out a plan to shut down Rokkasho.
(JNFL handed up this material at the meeting. The firm had
accumulated 1 trillion yen in debt. The
company official stressed that if the processing program would stop, they will
no longer be able to borrow money, and could face a financial crisis.)
JNFL: A private firm can't withstand such a crisis. We need some sort of assistance
JNFL: We'll need around 300 billion yen a year
JNFL: If we were a
government-owned entity, we could stop reprocessing right away
JFEC: Exactly.
JNFL: Private
companies get into trouble if the money stops flowing.
JNEC: You mean the
banks will stop lending
JNFL: Closing Rokkasho means everything will stop. Please prevent that from happening somehow.
We asked JNFL(Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.) about the meeting.
This is an outline
of their response: JNFL was established
as an privat e company and has been preparing to start up a reprocessing plant
based on the national policy. If the policy
suddenly changes we need to take steps.
We will explain the facts that commonly perspective.
Generally speaking
stopping the project will have negative financial effect on both
minispunies and electric companies.
The Atomic Energy Commision vice chairman, Mr. Suzuki attended the meeting. He agreed to interview. He said that the commission must be neutral. and acknowledged that the close meeting should not be held. He explained why the reprocessing program won’t be changed. invested interest (利害関係） are the main concern. Many businesses are counted on successful outcome for the planned nuclear fuel cycle. they don't want to see the changes that could affect their business. Mr. Suzuki will feel difficult to talk about the changes with things as they are now. We should first discuss the policy and decide on feasible solution. Then think about Rokkasho. Country 50 year old nuclear energy policy, systems and organizations are standing in the way of change. The situation limits what we can do. Even many people realized that the reprocessing won't work, the project continues. The reprocessing program was supposed to give resource poor Japan unlimited supply of energy. But as the time passed it became simply tool of nuclear power plant running and protect the businesses involved. Other factors influence the decison as well. These include possible harm to local economy and potential damage to relation to the United States... which is .... But changing the current frame work is only way forward.
Now we know the danger of radioactive waste, we can't keep to put it away.
The Atomic Energy Commision vice chairman, Mr. Suzuki attended the meeting. He agreed to interview. He said that the commission must be neutral. and acknowledged that the close meeting should not be held. He explained why the reprocessing program won’t be changed. invested interest (利害関係） are the main concern. Many businesses are counted on successful outcome for the planned nuclear fuel cycle. they don't want to see the changes that could affect their business. Mr. Suzuki will feel difficult to talk about the changes with things as they are now. We should first discuss the policy and decide on feasible solution. Then think about Rokkasho. Country 50 year old nuclear energy policy, systems and organizations are standing in the way of change. The situation limits what we can do. Even many people realized that the reprocessing won't work, the project continues. The reprocessing program was supposed to give resource poor Japan unlimited supply of energy. But as the time passed it became simply tool of nuclear power plant running and protect the businesses involved. Other factors influence the decison as well. These include possible harm to local economy and potential damage to relation to the United States... which is .... But changing the current frame work is only way forward.
Now we know the danger of radioactive waste, we can't keep to put it away.
But we can't allow this to go on.....
(Editor’s note: Maintenance cost of Rokkasho (Reprocessing plant) is ￡1.8 million a day.)
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