Japan’s nuclear energy and waste storage policy quandary

As an aftermath of the 3/11 nuclear accident in 2011, Japan shut down all of its 48 nuclear reactors and they remain inactive at present. Recently two reactors at Satsuma-Sendai in Kagoshima Prefecture got a nod of approval from the Nuclear Regulation Authority indicating the reactors have met the current, far more stringent, safety regulations.

However, there are other hurdles left to clear in addition to meeting these safety regulations. First, the public has a period of time in which to submit comments on the re-activation activities. After that, local and prefectural approval must be garnered prior to re-activation. This approval process for the two reactors in Satsuma-Sendai should not be rough sailing because the mayor of the Satsuma-Sendai city and the Kagoshima governor are reportedly inclined to support re-activation.

Despite or maybe because of a paucity of domestic resources, Japan would like to reduce its reliance on imports such as oil in an effort to become more energy independent. The technology that it hoped to utilize had been nuclear power generation until the accident. Prior to 3/11, a third of Japan’s electricity came from nuclear reactors, but now all that production is gone. The previous Noda administration of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) decided to shut down or phase out all nuclear reactors by the 2030s. However, the current Abe administration of the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP), a conservative party notwithstanding its name, which came to power in a landslide victory during the general election held in December 2012, made nuclear power “an important base-load electricity source”.

So, would you think that there is a change to Japan’s nuclear energy policy from the previous DPJ administration? Not really, especially in one important aspect: nuclear-spent fuel and reprocessing policy. To be more specific, Japan will keep its Rokkasho-Mura reprocessing program intact in Aomori Prefecture, at the northern end of Honshu.

Why is this a quandary? There are lots of issues associated with this policy. Let me point out some of the more important ones. First, Japan is the only non-nuclear weapon state that is trying to start a reprocessing plant. Japan also has a massive amount of plutonium in its possession, about 44 (metric) tons. Reprocessing is obviously a source of concern for nuclear non-proliferation and making a nuclear weapon from plutonium is not considered to be that difficult.

According to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 8 kg of plutonium is enough to make a primitive first generation nuclear bomb like the one that was dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. Note that it is only 8 kgs, not 8 tons. The storage of plutonium in many places in Japan without adequate security measures is also a big concern because the storage locations are probable targets for terrorist attacks. It is ironic that security personnel cannot carry firearms because of Japan’s strict anti-gun laws. Therefore, it is expected that the security forces would be no match against determined terrorists. One might hastily add that, although the police have assigned more personnel to guarding storage facilities, there is still not enough protection to safeguard them from terrorist attacks.

Why does Japan persistently pursue reprocessing despite this proliferation concern? It is because Japan has an acute spent-fuel storage problem, i.e., the lack of space for storage in nuclear power plants. The “temporary” storage sites in these power plants are nearing full capacity. This is a time bomb waiting to explode. Therefore, the government wants to send spent fuel, when cooled down enough to ship, out for reprocessing. This would reduce the amount of spent fuel that must be stored.

Japan is also pursuing the use of MOX (uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide) for power generation because, according to the government, it will consume some of the spent fuel for a useful purpose. One factor that is pushing the government in this direction is Aomori Prefecture and Rokkasho-Mura’s demand to begin operations at the reprocessing plant. Otherwise, they say that the 3000 tons of spent fuel that is stored “temporarily” at the reprocessing plant site be returned to the originating power plants. This will obviously make the storage problem much worse that it is today. Another complicating factor is that, despite pouring in large amounts of money, the reprocessing plant has not started operations yet because of a series of mishaps and delays. There is some doubt if it will ever come into operation.

The government is getting more serious about its efforts to try to find a permanent storage site(s) for nuclear waste. However, it has so far failed to find any possible candidate because no locality wants to become a nuclear waste dump out of fear of possible radiation contamination. The U.S. scrapped a nuclear waste storage plan to build a facility at the Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Since the U.S. is far larger geographically than Japan, it should presumably be much easier to find a suitable location for nuclear waste storage. But, the Americans have so far failed to do so. The only countries that have succeeded in finding the permanent storage site thus far are Finland and Sweden. These countries are small in size like Japan, but can find places that are scarcely, if at all, populated and are also far away from population centers. No such location exists in Japan.

How does Japan get out of this quandary? It seems that, at least for the near future, reprocessing and the use of MOX are plausible ideas, for the lack of any better alternative. Therefore, the government, no matter who is in power, clings to this reprocessing policy. The best ultimate answer is to find a permanent storage site, but there is no good domestic location for one. Do we have any hope for a technological fix?

Maybe, or that may just be a daydream.

© Japan Today