Protestors from Greenpeace, and other NGO's, demonstrate in a blizzard at the gates of the Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant. The proest is against the tests and reprocessing of Depleted Uranium.
"These tests must be cancelled and plans for full operation
abandoned. Rokkasho could produce as much as 8000 kilograms of
plutonium a year, enough to build more than 1000 nuclear weapons.
Japan has no justification to produce weapons-usable plutonium and
has no peaceful use for it," said Greenpeace Japan Nuclear
Campaigner, Atsuko Nogawa.
"Japan already has 40 tonnes of plutonium and has failed in
efforts to use it as nuclear fuel. The Bush administration has
given the green light to start-up the plant, even though it knows
the dangers of nuclear proliferation in the region," said
Ogawa.
Two years ago Greenpeace challenged the Bush administration to
review Rokkasho, particularly the impact it will have on the growth
in plutonium stocks, and on non-proliferation in North East Asia.
No such review has been conducted (2).
There are only two commercial reprocessing plants currently in
operation worldwide - British Nuclear Fuel Limited's Sellafield
plant in the UK, and Cogema's La Hague facility in France. These
state-owned facilities have proved to be the most contaminating
nuclear facilities in operation, and a failure on economic,
environmental and proliferation grounds. The French plant, operated
by Areva/COGEMA, has failed to secure contracts with its national
electric utility, EDF, beyond 2007. The UK media has reported that
reprocessing will end at Sellafield by 2010.
The Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant is estimated to have
cost $US 20 billion, more than the GDP of Fiji, Mongolia or Belize.
Based on French technology, it has taken 20 years to construct and
is a relic before it has even opened.
"This plant is an expensive failure and a monument to the risks
of proliferation of nuclear weapons materials. Both the Japanese
government and US administration need to rethink their dangerous
plans and close it down," concluded Nogawa.
Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation that uses
non-violent creative confrontation to expose global environmental
problems to force solutions that are essential to a green and
peaceful future.
VVPR info: Laura Lombardi,Picture Desk,Greenpeace International,(m)+31 6 46162009
Notes: 1 - The uranium will be used to test equipment over the next 12 months, and will be followed by spent fuel tests, scheduled for December 2005. Given the many problems experienced over the years during construction of the plant, it is expected that there will be further problems and delays. 2 - Greenpeace is opposed to the Rokkasho plant on non-proliferation, environmental, and human health grounds. Since the USA approved the uranium export, it has been disclosed that South Korea has conducted plutonium and enriched uranium tests, while the crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program has remained unresolved. The letter from Greenpeace to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is available on request.