council for nuclear fuel cycle · lation was 2.5 billion in the 1950s when the "atoms for...

ISSN 0919-9748

Autumn 2003 No.43

Council for Nuclear Fuel Cycle

OpinionHalf a Century since the "Atoms for Peace"

CNFC ReportRuling Parties Regard Safety and Opposition Parties Replacing NuclearPower with Energy Saving and NewEnergy Sources

PlutoCurrents of Yishui-River Are Fierce

Autumn 2003 No.43

Council for Nuclear Fuel Cycle

TBR Bldg. 303,2-10-2, Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku,

Tokyo 100-0014, JapanTEL : 81-3-3591-2081FAX : 81-3-3591-2088

E-Mail [email protected] Site http://www.cnfc.or.jp/

PublisherJun-ichi Nishizawa

Executive EditorShigeru Goto

Editorial OfficeCouncil for Nuclear Fuel Cycle

CNFC Members of the BoardChairmanNISHIZAWA, Jun-ichiPresident, Iwate Prefectural UniversityFormer President, Tohoku University

Acting ChairmanTSUSHIMA, YujiMember of the House of Representatives

DirectorsETO, AkinoriMember of the House of Representatives

GOTO, ShigeruFormer Member of the House of Representatives

IMAI, RyukichiFormer Ambassador Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary,Conference on Disarmament (Geneva)Professor, Kyorin University

NAKATANI, GenMember of the House of Representatives

OHATA, AkihiroMember of the House of Representatives

OSHIMA, TadamoriMember of the House of Representatives

TANABU, MasamiMember of the House of Councilors

WATANABE, ShuMember of the House of Representatives

Date of Issue : November 21, 2003

Printed by ASAHI BUSINESS CO., LTD.

• OpinionHalf a Century since the "Atoms for Peace"

• CNFC ReportRuling Parties Regard Safety and Opposition PartiesReplacing Nuclear Power with Energy Saving and New Energy Sources

- Each Party's Nuclear Energy Policy as Seen in ElectionPromises -

• LetterITER: Japan Is the Best Host Country

Akio Kitsunezaki

• Pluto 41A Section of Energy History --Part 9

Currents of Yishui-River Are FierceShigeru Goto

• CNFC ReportRenovation of "Monju" Will Start Soon?

• Info-ClipInvitation of N-Facility to Secure Financial Resources forPublic Welfare

- Plan for Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel in Mutsu City -

Plutonium Management in Japan

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Contents

Cover : The House of Representatives is under dissolution.Tower of the Diet building is being repaired as some stones are brokendue to a lightning strike.

1Plutonium No.43 Autumn 2003

50 years have passed since PresidentEisenhower declared "Atoms for Peace" inthe September 1953 U.N. GeneralAssembly. The International AtomicEnergy Agency (IAEA) was established forthe materialization of this declaration, andnuclear energy has been used as a substan-tial and stable supply of energy along withindustrial progress. By the end of 2002, 436nuclear power plants were in operation in31 countries with generating capacity of373,730 MW and 39 new units with34,700MW are being constructed. The ratioof nuclear electricity among the total gener-ated electricity is over 20% in 19 countries,and over 40% in 9 countries. It has becomean important source of energy not only forindustrially developed countries but in thedeveloping countries.

When we consider that the world's popu-lation was 2.5 billion in the 1950s when the"Atoms for Peace" declaration was made,that it was 6.0 billion in 2000 and will reach9.8 billion in 2050, it is necessary to securean energy source that is kind to the environ-ment, efficient and stable. This makes therole of nuclear power more important thanbefore. However, apart from this peacefuluses of nuclear energy, there are those whostill carry on with its military uses.

There is a critical issue that cannot beseparated from the peaceful and militaryuses of nuclear energy. In the past therehave been nuclear weapons developmentsby India and Pakistan, and the present situa-tion with Iraq, Iran and North Korea, whichthe U.S. President Bush recently called the"axis of evil", is also a typical case to point.These have schemed in their construction ofnuclear facilities for peaceful uses and sothat they could use them secretly for thedevelopment of nuclear weapons.

Uses of nuclear energy for peaceful andmilitary purposes are fundamentally differ-ent, and the IAEA safeguards and otherinternational control systems have beenestablished in order to guarantee the peace-ful uses. However, once there is a countrythat tries to develop nuclear weapons, thenthose countries that are devoted to its peace-ful uses are all put in the same category.This seriously influences and creates distur-bance in areas such as economy in thesecountries. Such countries have to work toclear such allegations, and even agree to theunlimited extension of an unequal treaty -the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty(NPT). If a nation cannot conduct thepeaceful uses of nuclear energy according tointernational rules, it cannot escape fromtotal detachment from international society.

Japan stresses in its Atomic Energy BasicLaw, which was formulated on the nationalagreement of the people, that Japan woulduse nuclear energy only for peace purposes.However, some foreign countries have oftenexpressed the concern that because ofJapan's development of nuclear power andespecially because of its effective utilizationof plutonium as fuel, that Japan might bedeveloping nuclear weapons. This isdespite the fact that Japan has positivelycooperated with the IAEA inspections andhas cooperated with the development ofsafeguard technology centered on PowerReactor & Nuclear Fuel DevelopmentCorporation (now Japan Nuclear CycleDevelopment Institute).

In order to dispel such concerns, we haveclarified our devotion to the peaceful usesfor reasons such as the national feeling asthe only and two time victim of nuclearbombing and our national policy of thethree non-nuclear principles of not produc-ing, not possessing and not permitting the

introduction of nuclear weapons into thecountry and the abolition of nuclearweapons. This is a point that we have con-tinually stressed in this magazine"Plutonium" as well. We believe that it isour country's duty to continue to positivelycooperate with establishing an internationalnon-proliferation regime and supportnuclear arms reduction, the abolishment ofnuclear weapons and the peaceful uses ofnuclear energy.

Looking at the situation with Iraq, NorthKorea and Iran makes us think of what isnational security. Does national securityand the people's happiness result from hold-ing nuclear weapons in order to become astrong country or be thought of as such andbeing separated from international society?It is the difference in the way of thinkingwhen one person in the city carry a gun soyou should have one too, or you should con-vince everyone to throw away their guns.Our country believes the latter, which iswhy we strongly propose the reduction andabolition of nuclear weapons. The reasonwhy we agreed to the unlimited extension ofthe NPT was not because we acknowledgedthe right of the five nuclear weapons statesto continue to develop nuclear weaponsindefinitely, but because the condition of theNPT unlimited extension was the sincerepromotion of nuclear arms reduction.

We hope that countries that promotes useof nuclear energy as an energy source andthose who do not, nuclear weapons statesand non-nuclear weapons states, all enterthe NPT, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty(CTBT), and that nuclear arms reductionand nuclear energy for peaceful uses willcontinue to show progress in the near future.

Executive Editor

Half a Century since the "Atoms for Peace"

CNFC Report

2 Plutonium No.43 Autumn 2003

Energy Policy Not Stressed

In preparation of the Lower Houseelection on November 9, 2003, eachparty announced in early October theirelection and administration promisesunder names such as manifesto, meas-ures for priority issues and generalelection agenda. The large differencewith past election promises was thatsome of their items were very detailedand even included numerical objects toobtain the administration. On theother hand, some policy items weretaken up from a broader perspective,while only specific areas or details werestressed in other issues, making up adiverse group of promises on the whole.

With regard to the energy policy andnuclear power policy, neither the rulingparties nor opposition parties includedconcrete policies, and former electionpromises and policies appeared againin different words. It is not clearwhether this is because they did nothave time to consider concrete policy orbecause energy issues do not lead tovotes, because it is difficult to createboth long term and concrete policies, orbecause an energy crisis is not expectedsoon, but energy is almost surely not apoint of debate or policy with overrid-ing priority at this time.

Ruling Parties Adhere to NuclearEnergy

The energy policy section within theLDP's "Measures for Priority Issues-

2004" promises to conform to the "legis-lation to implement a basic law onenergy policy" which was establishedlast year through leadership of theLDP, and that they would reevaluatethe policy in view of the national econo-my as a whole in 2004 in order to cre-ate a basic plan for energy policy inwhich measures are systematicallyorganized.

With regard to nuclear power, it says,"the recent scandals with regard tonuclear power... are serious offensesthat should not ever be allowed to occuragain. In addition to urging seriousreflection by related personnel, we areputting our full effort into recoveringthe trust of the local people and thenation through steady implementationof preventative measures and improve-ment in information disclosure."Although it does not mention any com-pany names, it touches on the hiddenmalfunction data, and puts the funda-mental intensification of nuclear safetymeasures at the top of the list. Besidesthis, it includes the reevaluation orrecreation of the subsidy system inorder to increase financial support tolocal areas with nuclear power facilities.

The section also states more clearlythan before that the nuclear fuel cycleis the basis of nuclear power policy forthe very long-term use of nuclearpower generation, and that the LDPaims for the technology developmentand industrial application of thenuclear fuel cycle technology.

Within the Komeito's "Manifesto,"there is no mention of energy policy ornuclear power policy although, in its"Environment" section, it pleads for theuse of clean energy within the homeand the increased use of new energy inorder to stop global warming. Sincethe Komeito is in the position to be col-laborating with the LDP in policy asone of the ruling parties, it looks as ifthey believe there is no reason to gointo the energy/nuclear power policy.

The New Conservative Party's"General Election Agenda" includes,under the title "Establishing StableSupply of Energy," the policy to pro-mote the energy/nuclear power policythat the government has been promot-ing until the present.

Opposition Parties Aim to Stop NuclearPower in the Future

The top opposition party, theDemocratic Party of Japan, classifiesnuclear power as an "interim energyresource" under "Environment," of the"The Democratic Party AdministrationAgenda/Manifesto." This is not differentfrom the party's energy policy duringthe June 2000 Lower House elections.Although they do not make clear men-tion of it, they seem not to have changedtheir policy to accept the presentnuclear power plants but limits the con-struction of new facilities. In their newagenda, they add "safety first and thestringent monitoring of nuclear energyadministration" in view of the nuclear

Ruling Parties Regard Safety and Opposition Parties Replacing Nuclear Power with

Energy Saving and New Energy Sources- Each Party's Nuclear Energy Policy as Seen in Election Promises -

CNFC Report


power related scandals. In addition,they clearly state that if they are able toobtain the administration, they willdouble the budget for futuristic energysources such as renewable energy, fuelcells and new energy sources from thepresent 150 billion yen to 300 billion yenduring the term. However, they do notinclude their former election promise toincrease the share of new energy withinthe total amount of energy used to over5% by 2010.

The Social Democratic Party (SDP),within its "Policies of the SDP; 3 Pointsof Dispute, 8 Promises," says that itwill "promote a break from nuclear

power as national policy," and that thePu-thermal Project and reprocessing ofnuclear fuel will be stopped immediate-ly, while the nuclear energy budget willbe divided among development andtechnological improvement of naturalenergy. They remain unchanged instressing the unrealistic policy that"with enough budget, new energy willbe able to replace nuclear power."

The Japan Communist Party, in its"Policy of the Japan Communist Partyfacing the General Election," says that"nuclear power is an "unestablishedtechnology" and, in view of its safetyrisks, should be dealt with through

such measures as stopping all opera-tions. Naturally, they also say thatthey will stop such projects as the"Plutonium circulation project" (Theydo not use the word "recycling") or thePu-thermal Project, which onlyincrease danger, and proceed with thesystematic downsizing of the presentnuclear power. Their policy is the full-scale use and development of energysources such as wind power, small-scale hydropower, wave power, geot-hermal power, biomass and otherwhich are regionally distinct energysources instead. However, they do notmention those areas and large cities

SeatsAfterParty

Ruling Parties

Opposition Parties

LDP Oct. 7, 2003

Komeito Oct. 2, 2003

New ConservativeParty Oct. 3, 2003

DPJ Oct. 5, 2003

SDP Oct. 3, 2003

JCP Oct. 9, 2003

Others

Energy Policy Nuclear Power Policy Saving/New Energy Policy SeatsBefore

Remarks・Dates under the party names are the dates on which the policies/manifestos were announced.・Policy contents were obtained through the web sites of each party.・Seats After is the number of House Members newly elected.・Seats Before is the number of House Members as time of dissolution.

A "legislation to implement a basic law on energy policy" was established in 2002 under the leadership of the LDP. With this legislation in mind, which is based around the stable supply of oil, natural gas and other energy source, adaptation to the environment, and the use of market principles, they will establish an energy basic plan in the near future to methodically promote a total long-term energy policy.

Establish a comprehensive energy strategy based on the stable supply, environment conservation, and economic rationality.

Double the budget for new clean energies such as wind, solar and wave power, and work toward further popularization of low-emission vehicles.

Reexamine systems for price competition, mass production and mass consumption and large public works projects based on the view point of the residents; create a recycling-type society that gives proper attention to the natural environment; reverse energy policy from one dependent on nuclear power to one centered around renewable energy.

Stop dangerous use of nuclear power as if it is the "only one source of energy" and aim for supply of safe energy such as development of local natural energies.

Place a major focus on their support of local communities having nuclear power plants and other long-term fixed energy sources that are stable and have very low environmental burden, and increase support by constructing a new subsidy system, etc. while fundamentally strengthening nuclear power safety measures such as the safety review and security system. Also, the LDP aims for the technological development and practical application of the nuclear fuel cycle as the core of national nuclear power policy for the long-term continuation of nuclear power.

Establish the nuclear fuel cycle and use nuclear energy through full enforcement of its safety, diversify energy sources, and implement the "best mix of energy sources."

Promote the stringent observation of administration for nuclear energy, as a transient source of energy, prioritizing safety.

Clarify the promotion of a break from nuclear power as a national policy, fundamentally revising the basic energy plan. Stop all plans for plutonium use such as Pu-thermal and nuclear fuel reprocessing.

Nuclear power is a risk and measures such as the discontinuation of all operations are necessary. The plutonium circulation plan, which has clearly failed, and the Pu-thermal plan, which only increases the danger of nuclear power, should be discontinued. Existing nuclear power plants should be systematically reduced.

Support the efforts and development of the practical application of energy saving technology, promote technological development of fuel cells, solar energy, wind energy and biomass for the implementation of new energy, and strengthen cooperation between the national government, local governing bodies, NGOs and others.

Dramatically popularize the use of clean energy within homes and amplify new renewable energy sources for the home such as fuel cells, solar power, and low-emission vehicles in order to promote measures against global warming.

Actively support technological development committees for energy saving, new energy and fuel cells.

Systematically double the budget related to new energies for the development and popularize of future energies such as renewable energies including wind and solar power, biomass, wave and other ocean energies and fuel cells.

Cut back on nuclear power related budget; reallocate to development and application technology improvement of renewable natural energies. Guarantee the purchase of natural energy at a fixed price through a "natural energy generation promotion law" and aim for the popularization of natural energy.

Promote development of natural energy such as wind power, small-scale hydropower, wave power, and geothermal power, and biomass in cooperation with local industry such as livestock and forestry industries. Mandate the purchase of such power by electric companies in order to implement the above. Also, implement an environmental tax according to CO2 emissions in order to reinforce financial resources.

237

34

4

177

6

9

13

247

31

9

137

18

20

13

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

A conservative party that was creat-ed through the coalition of two conser-vative parties in November 1955. Theparty platform aims for a cultural dem-ocratic country, liberty and independ-ence, stability of life, completion of awelfare state, reformation of theConstitution, adherence to the securitypartnership of Japan and the UnitedStates, etc. The party has continued tohold on to the administration for manyyears.

The Komeito

A party with Sokagakkai, a religiousorganization, as its mother body. TheSokagakkai started sending candidatesto the local assemblies in 1955, to theUpper House from 1956, and the LowerHouse from 1964, developing throughits great number of believers and strong

organization. In this election, it is saidthat the party aims for 10 million votes.It was a part of the ruling coalitions of1993 and 1994, and in the ruling coali-tion with the LDP from 1999.

The New Conservative Party

A conservative party that wasformed in April 2000 of House mem-bers who were against the LiberalParty leaders policy to break awayfrom the coalition government.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)

A party that was created out ofmembers from various parties inSeptember 1996. Their political ideolo-gy is to change the present society fromone that is revolving around a bureau-cratic government to one revolvingaround the citizens, the break fromspecial-interest politics of sweet rela-tionships among politicians, bureau-

CNFC Report


that have very little regionally distinctenergy sources.

Energy Issue Does not Lead to Votes

On the whole, each party is preparedto make more efforts into the uses anddevelopment of saving energy and innew energy. However, the big differ-ence between the understanding of theruling and opposition parties concern-ing new energy sources continues to betheir different expectations toward newenergy and natural energy - in otherwords, whether such sources cansteadily supply large amounts of ener-gy. This shows the great differencebetween the parties which have heldthe administration and have promoteda realistic energy policy, and partiesthat have not.

The present focal point concerningthe global warming is Russia's formalratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Inthe end of September, Russiaannounced its forecast that its ratifica-tion of the Kyoto Protocol concerningglobal warming will be delayed anotherone year to year and a half. It is saidthat the conditions for putting theKyoto Protocol into effect will be metonce Russia ratifies it, and the wholeworld is putting their attention on this.None of this term's election promisesincluded any measures to promptRussia's ratification of the KyotoProtocol. Not only that, but probablynone of the candidates will mention theenergy issue during their campaigns.This is a shame.

Reference

crats and business, respect of the con-stitution's ideology of peace, etc. Sinceits establishment, it has collaboratedagain and again with opposition par-ties, and climbed up to top oppositionparty. In this election, it aims for achange of administration between thetwo main political parties.

The Social Democratic Party (SDP)

The first socialist party in Japanestablished in 1901. The former body,the Japan Socialist Party, was estab-lished in November 1945 by the vari-ous proletariat parties from before thewar that were united in common pur-pose. In the Lower House election ofApril 1947, it gave birth to theKatayama Cabinet as the leadingparty. Since then, it split repeatedlyuntil, in October 1955, the Left andRight again became one. In June 1994,it formed a ruling coalition with theLDP and New Party Sakigake. InJanuary 1996, it changed its name tothe present. Due to the North Koreanissue and others, it is beginning to loseinfluence as an opposition party.

The Japan Communist Party (JCP)

The party was created in July 1922under the slogan of abolition to theimperial system and a democraticreform. Until the end of the War in1945, it was an illegal party. Since1955, it has aimed for an anti-imperial,anti-dictatorial people's democraticreform. Although it was hit by theupheaval in Eastern Europe and thefailure of the Soviet style socialism,through its coalition with the SocialistParty in 1994, it has bounded forwardin the elections as "the only reforma-tion party."

The New Conservative Party decided todisband and merge with LDP, on the dayfollowing the election (Nov. 10).


Introduction

The construction of a large facility tobe conducted under an internationalcollaboration on research and develop-ment of fusion, the man-made realiza-tion of the reactions of the sun and thestars, is starting very soon. ITER(International Thermonuclear Experi-mental Reactor) program is now in thelast phase of the negotiations amonggovernments of Japan, EU, RussianFederation, Canada, USA, China andKorea, and it is expected to be conclud-ed early next year. Four sites havebeen proposed as the ITER construc-tion site: Rokkasho-mura of Japan,Cadarache of France, Vandellos ofSpain and Clarinton of Canada. TheJapanese government is working hard to get Parties' agreement to construct ITER in Rokkasho. (Seehttp://www.pref.aomori.jp/iter/index.html.)

Fusion has a number of merits suchas almost inexhaustible fuel and highlevel of safety, and therefore the fusionresearch and development have beeneagerly conducted in major countriesfor nearly 50 years. ITER is the firstfacility for experiments of high power(500 MW) production by fusion reac-tion.

It is the first project for the world todevelop a new energy source, whichwould give a basic effect to people's lifefor a very long time range in future, byan international collaboration includ-ing Russia and Japan from a conceptu-al design phase.

For the success of this significantproject which will last for 30 years atleast, the important factors are: under-standing and support of the generalpublic of the host country, access toindustrial technologies with a highcapability as well as the existence ofacademic society of fusion with a sub-stantial size, in addition to the techni-cal requirements already assessed bythe international ITER committee.

There has been a strong public sup-port to fusion research in Japan sincethe start of its research activitybecause the people know our countrylacks natural energy resources. This isalso to be noted that there have beenfusion research supporting groups inour Diet (Congress) since 1970s withabout 100 members. Many cabinetmembers were and are members of thegroup including Mr. S. Koizumi, thepresent prime minister and Mr. Y.Mori, the previous prime minister whohad been the chair of the group forquite a long time. Our major industri-

al corporations such as Hitachi,Toshiba, Mitsubishi, etc. are also eagerto fusion research and development.This may be surprising to other coun-tries that some of Japanese manufac-turing companies have built and oper-ated their own fusion devices. Hitachiis still operating their own tokamakdevice. JT-60, one of the three largetokamaks of 1980s and to the present,has been built by Japanese technologyonly, and our industry has made amajor contribution to the ITER tech-nology development (ITER Researchand Development, R&D) such as largesuperconducting magnets, large vesselfor plasma containment, and manyother technologies. The NipponKeidanren, the most powerful forum ofour industries has also been a strongsupporter of fusion and ITER.Keidanren has established in 1990s aspecial council for support of ITER.

The author has been working forfusion research and development atthe Japan Atomic Energy ResearchInstitute (JAERI) for more than 30years until March 2003. He had beenworking as the Contact Person of theJapanese side of the ITER Counciluntil 1998 and has been using his timefor the start up and promotion of theITER project.

ITER: Japan Is the Best Host Country

Akio KitsunezakiResearch Organization for

Information Science and Technology (RIST)


Significance of ITER Project

During these several decades of thefusion research, a large progress hasbeen accomplished in both plasmaphysics and technologies necessary tofusion reactor as described in the nextchapter. However, almost all experi-ments until now have been conductedwith simulated fuel, hydrogen and/ordeuterium, avoiding a use of tritiumgas which emits a weak beta radiation.Only exceptions are short D-T experi-ments of about one second in TFTR(Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor) ofUSA and JET (Joint European Torus)of EU, where a real power productionof 16 MW (short pulse) has beendemonstrated in 1990s. Based onthose progress, fusion experimentalreactors have been planned in Japan,EU, USA and Russia independently at

first, but because of the vast size of theproject and wideness of related tech-nology area, the four Parties abovejudged that the fusion experimentalreactor shall be built under interna-tional collaboration. An internationalcollaboration of the four Parties onfusion experimental reactor had actu-ally been conducted since 1978 namedas the INTOR (International TokamakReactor) project under the auspices ofthe IAEA (International AtomicEnergy Agency). Implicitly and techni-cally based on results of the INTORproject, and politically based on thewest-east summit meeting of 1985, theITER project was started in 1988 bythe four Parties. The ITERConceptual Design Activities (CDA)was successfully finished in 1990 andits following phase, the EngineeringDesign Phase (EDA), was started in

1992. EDA was successfully finishedand we are now in the ITA (ITERTransitional Activities) phase.

ITER is a tokamak type magneticfusion device as shown in Fig. 1 with aheight of about 20m. An ultra hightemperature plasma of more than 100million degrees* is produced andmaintained in the empty donut with aD shaped cross section at the center ofthe machine. The construction cost ofthe machine is estimated to be about 5billion U.S. dollars. The total length oftime of ITER construction and opera-tion is planned to be about 30 years.

Characteristics of Fusion Reaction andSafety of Fusion Reactor

For the fusion reaction, two nucleihave to be fused together. But in thenormal status, one nucleus is sur-rounded by an electron cloud. The sizedifference of a nucleus and a surround-ing sphere of electron cloud is enor-mous. Let a baseball park be the elec-tron cloud, there sits a nucleus of a sizeof one-yen coin (or a penny) at the cen-ter. Therefore, it is first necessary toremove electron cloud to get nucleifused. When the temperature of gas ofdeuterium and tritium becomes higherthan 10,000 degrees centigrade, elec-tron and nucleus departs each otherand the nuclei fly without electron.Even when the nuclei become nakedthis way, that is still not enough to afusion reaction because each nucleushas positive electricity and repulseeach other like north poles of two mag-net bars. To overcome the repulsiveforce, a high speed is necessary forboth nuclei. This is the reason why avery high temperature is necessary forfusion reaction because 'temperature'is an index of kinetic energy of parti-cles. The needed temperature is 100million degrees which corresponds to aspeed of about 1,000 km/s.

Can we make such high tempera-ture as 100 million degrees? Yes, wecan. JT-60 tokamak machine of Japan* : 'degree' in this paper means 'degrees centigrade' or 'degree K'.

Fig.1 Conceptual Drawing of ITER (Source: Brochure of JAERI)


has the world record of high tempera-ture as high as 520 million degreeswhich is the highest temperature ofthe solar system and recorded in theGuinness Book of Records. But all thematerials would melt at around 4,000degrees? Yes, but that's OK. We usemagnetic field lines to confine plasma.Both of ions and electrons, the compo-nent particles of plasma, move helical-ly along a magnetic line like vinestems. Therefore by setting magneticlines without touching a wall, we canconfine plasma detached from thewall. The second reason we can con-fine the very high temperature plasmais that the particle density of plasma isvery, very low. The plasma density isabout one millionth of that of usual air.This density might be called as vacu-um 50 years ago. Therefore, evenwhen some portion of plasma particleshit a wall, total heat given to the wallis not high. This is the same reason aswhy we can enjoy saunas of more than100 degrees even though we will sure-ly be boiled if we got in a bath tub of100 degrees. The same is for photolu-minescence light tubes inside of whichexists plasma of about ten thousanddegrees but they are not hot.

Because no radioactive material isproduced from the D-T fusion reac-tion, fusion used to be called as 'clean'.However, the high energy neutronsactually produces radioactive nucleiwhen they hit nuclei of materials com-posing the reactor. This is called asthe radio-activation phenomenon.Therefore the fusion is not clean intruth. But it is important that no highlevel waste is produced, and theradioactive nuclei are produced in thebulk of materials like chocochips of thechocochip cookies. That is, theradioactive nuclei produced areenclosed by hard materials and it isalmost impossible that the radionu-clides go out of the machine.Moreover, we can control the kind ofthe produced radioactive materials by

selecting materials of the reactor. Thevolume of the radio-activated materialcan be reduced, and the decay time ofthe radioactivity can be made shorter.New low activation materials are nowunder development, but a calculationshows that even when the presentlyavailable materials are used for fusionreactor, the radioactive hazard level ofa fusion reactor decays quickly, to one100 thousands in 50 years and onemillionth in 500 years. For compari-son, the same index of hazard leveldecays only to one third in 500 yearsin the present fission reactors.

The first thing people would thinkwhen they hear the word nuclearfusion may surely be safety, and there-fore the safety of nuclear fusion isdescribed as above. In addition, thereis a built-in safety in fusion. That is,because a very high temperature ofmore than 100 million degrees is nec-essary for fusion reaction, fusion reac-tion automatically stops whenever anyunexpected happening occurs bydecrease of temperatures. Fusionplasma is very weak to a minimumamount of impurity. Therefore a so-

called vacuum chamber with ultrahigh vacuum comparable to the spacevacuum is needed to fusion reactions.The fusion reaction stops when only afew cubic centimeters of normal pres-sure air leaks into the vacuum cham-ber. The second good point of fusion isthat, by physics of fusion reaction, nocriticality accident occurs in fusiondevices. In contrast, a critical accidentoccurs in fission reactors when morethan critical amount of fission fuelgathers together. Because the heatproduction stops at any unexpected sit-uation in fusion reactor, there is nopossibility that the radioactive materi-als in the reactor go outside of themachine. Therefore only material ofconcern is tritium which is the half ofthe fuel. Of course tritium is also han-dled safely. Most of the tritium in thereactor site is stored in tritium-absorb-ing material and cannot be released inany case. The parts of devices with tri-tium are made with double wall struc-ture to prevent any tritium leak. Evenin an assumed case where someamount of tritium gas released fromthe system, the cleaning device cleans

1000

PR

OG

RE

SS

YEAR

0.001

0.01

0.1

1

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100

1965 1980 1990 2000

JT-60(Japan)

FUSION PLASMA

T3 (USSR)

4004

ISR

SppS

8086

80486

LHC

JET

TFTR

ITER

JET (EU)TFTR (USA)

Semiconductor (CPU)

Particle Accelerator

Pentium 4

Tevatron

Fig.2 Research and Development of Fusion Plasma(Source: EFDA Report)


up the reactor facilities and no air withtritium ratio higher than the regulato-ry value will be released to outside ofthe site.

Although the present research ofnuclear fusion aims at the electricityproduction, the produced energy canalso be used for hydrogen production,heat utilization and so on. Other thanthe merits of fusion that fuel is almostinexhaustible and available anywherein the world, there is another specialmerit in fusion which became moreimportant in the recent world situa-tions. That is the fact that the mag-netic fusion is totally not needed byany of military use. Laser (inertial)fusion is conducted with puttingweight on military side in the USAand in Europe**, but the magneticfusion has no connection to militaryuse. In 1968, the west and the east are

on the cliff of a war at the Spring ofPrague event. At that same time, aninternational collaboration of tokamakexperiment was going on withresearchers of Britain and the USA inthe Kurchatov laboratory nearMoscow. This fact clearly proves thatthe magnetic fusion is totally useless tomilitary purpose. The world willunderstand that it is appropriate thatJapan makes the major contribution tothe fusion development because Japanadvocates peace as its national basisand Japan lacks natural energyresource. For fusion, no guard isrequired for fuel transportation and/orstorage because there is no relation-ship to the nuclear proliferation.There is no worry even when a fusionreactor is built in any country. Onemore related point of fusion to be notedis that probably this is the first trial in

the history of mankind to conduct thisbig scientific development without mil-itary purpose or military budget. All oflarge airplanes, space rockets and thepresent fission reactors have beendeveloped with military budget untildemonstration of their industrialusability. We wish to make the majorcontribution to this first trial of themankind of developing an energysource which will contribute to the peo-ple of the whole world for more thanmillions of years. After success ofITER, the road to the fusion power sta-tion is very short.

Swift Progress of Fusion Research

In the middle of 1970s, researchersof the USA and EU and thenresearchers of Japan, too, said fusionwould be realized in about 30 years.There are several reasons whyresearchers of the world were soaggressive in 1970s. One is that thecore plasma is composed of very simplecomponents: electrons and ions ofhydrogen isotopes which are the sim-plest of ions, and the magnetic fieldwhich is well known by the Maxwell'sequation. The oil shock at that timemay also be an important factor tomake them so aggressive for fusionresearch. Unfortunately, the situationhas been not quite as they expected atthat time, but the progress of thefusion research is spectacular, compa-rable to the progress speed of the semi-conductors as shown in Fig. 2 which istaken from a EFDA (European FusionDevelopment Agreement) report ofEU. It is also to be noted that theresults of Japanese tokamak JT-60(Fig. 3) are shown in the figure as therecent points. Thus the research onthe core plasma has shown a greatprogress using tokamaks of the worldlead by the three large tokamaksincluding Japanese JT-60. Althoughthere are many still to be studied ondetails of plasma behavior, the globalbehavior of plasma has become able to

Bridge for Diagnostics

Plasma Chamber and its inside

Plasma Heating Device

Fig.3 JT-60

** : The laser fusion, or ICF, is now concentrating on a single shot of break-even implosion.The author believes that even if a single shot implosion is made, it is not clear whetherthe ICF can lead to a power reactor because there are many difficult unsolved technicalproblems associated to high rate repetition of about 10 Hz implosion. The USDepartment of Energy has recently established a committee assessing the ICF as anenergy source and the report is expected early 2004.


be anticipated with high accuracy.Fortunately, oil did not exhaust untilnow, but for Japan, the risky situationof energy has not been changed.

Development of Fusion Engineeringand Technology

The fusion engineering and technol-ogy necessary to tokamak type fusionreactor such as large superconductingmagnets, large vacuum vessel which isa empty donut shaped tube with aheight of about 15 m and blanketwhich is a wall with a thickness ofmore than 50 cm and necessary toextract heat produced by fusion reac-tion with a shape of high pressure,high temperature steam to turbineelectricity generator, have also showna great progress. Especially, a largeprogress has been accomplished in 'theITER Research and Development(R&D)' during the ITER EngineeringDesign Activities. The total budget ofthese R&D conducted in the four ITERParties is more than 700 million U.S.dollars. Among those items, supercon-ducting coils with fast current control,vacuum vessel and blanket modulehave been conducted with Japaneseleadership. In the fabrication of thecenter solenoid (CS) superconductingcoil, the conductor composed of morethan thousand superconducting

filamentswere madein Japan,USA andEU. Thenthe twinedrope usingthose con-d u c t o r swere madein Japanand USA.The ropeswere jacketed in EU (Italy) using jack-ets made in USA and the jacketedcables were fabricated into coils inJapan and USA, and the inner coilmodule made in USA were transport-ed to Japan and assembled togetherwith a Japanese made outer coil mod-ule and the cooling tests followed bythe magnetic field producing test hadbeen conducted in Japan using thehigh power electric power supply of JT-60 tokamak machine. By this compli-cated method, fabrication experiencewere given to all related Parties at thesame time gathering all experiencesand ideas of the Parties. There weredifficulties on management such astaxing at the transportation, but it wasalso proved that all Parties can cooper-ate together solving difficulties.

As briefly described here, all the

technology necessary to the construc-tion of ITER has been established.

Among the great progress ofresearch on high temperature plas-mas, the continuous operation of toka-maks, which had been understoodalmost impossible before, has beenproved to be very probable. With anadvanced control of plasma, the plas-ma current can be produced and main-tained by plasma itself and by particlebeams and radio frequency powerinstead of excited by transformer asthe tokamaks until now. The discov-ery of a high performance thermalinsulation layer inside the donut-shaped plasma of tokamak has alsobeen a surprising one. Both progressabove have been made in JT-60, andbased on these results, the design ofITER has been improved to a smaller

Rokkasho-muraRokkasho-mura

Fig.4 ITER Site at Rokkasho-mura（http://www.pref.aomori.jp/iter/index.html）

size without losing most of its originalresearch targets. We are very muchpleased that our research results couldcontribute to the world's fusionresearch by reducing the cost of ITERwhich have made the construction pro-gram of ITER more realistic andfaster.

ITER as a Major International Project

Through the activities of ITER, ithas been clearly shown thatresearchers and engineers with vari-ous basis of culture, education andenvironment can collaborate togetherand attain much better results than aproject conducted by a single one coun-try. By gathering experiences andideas of people from different Parties,the project has been conducted muchefficiently and much speedily. Ofcourse there have been difficultiesaccompanied with international coop-eration, these many results wouldnever be obtained without internation-al cooperation.

The author believe that, in future,international cooperation is a must tothis kind of research and developmentto avoid giving unnecessary fears orsuspicions to surrounding countries.And it is now not allowed any moreonly one country is benefited by thenew technology even if any advancedtechnology is developed.

For Japan, the ITER program willbe the first real international activityand very important to the future ofJapan to be really recognized as a realmember of the world. For ITER, theauthor believes Japan is the best host.This is because for this kind of largescale, long range project, the mostimportant point is a long lasting strongsupport of the public, as written before.There may be more important mean-ing to the world that Japan is outsideof the alphabet world although alpha-

bet more and more frequently appearsin our recent life.

ITER and Rokkasho-mura

Rokkasho-mura (mura means vil-lage) is located at the north end of themainland (Honshu) of Japan. The aer-ial view of the ITER site is shown inFig. 4. The Rokkasho is in the middleof nature, but as normal in Japan, thearea is well populated and Aomori city,the central city of the Aomori prefec-ture, is about 50 km from Rokkasho.All technical requirements are fulfilledincluding transportation, electricpower, and so on. (See 'http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Newsletters/ITER-NL-ITA-2.pdf'where you can see a report of the inter-national site assessment committee ofITER.) In winter, the area is a coldregion in Japan but not so cold asother candidate places because thearea is just next to the Pacific Ocean.The author believe all of Japanese peo-ple including residents of the Aomoriprefecture we will provide our bestsupport to ITER.

Conclusions

There have been a great progressboth in high temperature plasmaresearch and fusion engineering andtechnologies, and both physics andtechnology preparation, as well as thedesign of ITER, are ready to start con-struction.

From a grand view point that thereduction of difference of level of life inthe world is the basic key to the peaceof the world, as shown by recent hap-penings in the world, it is one of thevery important elements that largescale, long range, peace-oriented inter-national collaboration project be sitedin a place other than the so-calledwestern region of the world. From thispoint of view, ITER is the best candi-

date project to be sited in Asia. Veryfortunately, and as one of the uniquepoint of the ITER project, three out ofthe seven Parties of the negotiation areAsian countries. Of course, it will beclearly stated in the Agreement thatall results should be shared amongtheParties. It may be helpful to remember that ITER can not be usedto any dangerous purpose at all.

The author believes that Japan isproposing the best ITER site in theworld. As for the security of people'slife, our people are still believing thatsafety is given free as well as water.The number of criminal event isincreasing in large cities but still muchless than the world average***, andthe country area is much more quiet.

Recently the MEXT (Ministry ofEducation, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology) of our governmenttaking care of the ITER has formallymade a request of a substantialamount of budget assuming the ITERsite is decided to be Rokkasho. Onemore point to be added may be thatthere will be least problem of wasteafter the end of ITER operationbecause there is radioactive waste stor-age facility next to the proposed site.

It is hoped that the world would giveJapan and Asia a chance to get a realexperience of developing advancedtechnology and experience of largescale international collaboration.ITER is a precious tool to realize manygood targets above and to decrease dif-ferences of level of life, especially thatof science and technology, which is thekey to the peace of the world.

(Ref.) Kikuchi, M. Inoue, N. 'Role ofFusion Energy for the 21st CenturyEnergy Market and DevelopmentStrategy with International Thermo-nuclear Experimental Reactor' WorldEnergy Council, 18th Congress, BuenosAires, October 2002 (www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/publications/default/tech_papers/18th_Congress/Index/h_k.asp)


*** : A statistic table shows numbers for Japan of murder of about 0.2 of USA and about 0.3of Europe, that of steal of about 0.4 of USA and Europe in 2000.


$1

(Pluto)

A Section of Energy History -- Part IX

Currents of Yishui-River Are Fierce

Shigeru Goto

"The wind is blusterous and the cur-rents of the Yishui-River are fierce. Thewarrior will not come back again oncehe goes away across the River.""The Socialist Party is like the one-

shot assassin Jing Ke. I think. Theyhave acted almost like this fighterwho was unable to behead the firstemperor of Shin and never returnedafter crossing the Yishui-River." Isometimes remember how Shinpei,whom we called a satirist, used toquote "The wind is blusterous."Shinpei, who was good at languagesand spoke English, French andGermany, was a leader of the policy-making advisory board, and he usedto deftly quote old texts, myths andliterature in his jokes whereby wewere most entertained.

It was when we had started seeingthe beginning of our restoration fromthe War. In the policymaking adviso-ry board of the Socialist Party weregathered spirited samurai. It wasalmost like Liangshanpo (in a Chinesestory of 108 heroes who hold thismarsh as the headquarters in theirfight). There were those who had

experience as student soldiers andthose who jumped into politics rightafter university - but all were mostlyof the same generation of young men,so that even the veteran diet membersdid not take them lightly. There washeat on both sides in the discussionsheld around the table. Study andresearch were taken seriously withregard to policy planning, and ardorwas directed toward it. They drankmuch, talked much, and were trulygood colleagues and friends. The thinShinpei was at the center of this, butin 1965, in the midst of battles anddivision within the Socialist Party, hedisappeared and returned to the uni-versity pulpit.

Party controversy during this timewas the continued conflict betweenthe one sweep revolution style of theMarx/Leninist and the WesternEuropean style social democracy thatplaced importance on the parliamen-tary democracy. Various areas of thepolicy making advisory board werekept at a distance from such debates,but it could not be avoided that thesewould influence policy making. So, it

was often the case that policy lost itsrational and, whether this was the rea-son or not, 1 and then 2 warriors ranfrom the struggle between hope anddespair and left the Party. Friends,although feeling deep love for thisparty in which they had spent theirpassionate youth, continue to have abitterness in the bottom of their heartsthat their hopes had not been attainedand do not talk much of it now.

Sometimes I am reminded of thefaces of these friends at that time."Why couldn't the Socialist Party everobtain the reins of government in thelast half century?" Such voices cometo my mind. There was a time whenthere were expectations that the"Socialist Party would rule."However, the Socialist Party wasnever able to recover from its longperiod of decline. I think that if weunravel the history of the SocialistParty we would be able to find manyreasons for this, and I have actuallyseen several research documents onthis theme. However, what is mostsad is that I have heard from politicalscience scholars who are knowledge-


able about history of political partiesthat "Research on the Socialist Partyhas very low documentation value.Why is it that there can be peopleinterested in the Socialist Party, butthere can be so little interest in actual-ly researching it."

A few days ago, I bought "Jukyo no Chie (Confucian Wisdom)"(Chukoshinsho) by Chinese historyscholar Hisaharu Kushida. This bookwas made from many years of laborin which the various intellectual her-itages of the ancient Chinese were vis-ited. As the book reminded me ofwhat I had learned about Confucianwisdom, and because I had learned alittle about Confucianism in the past, Ienjoy reading it.

With regard to the "Shiji Tsugan"written by Sima Guang of Song-Era(China), Mr. Kushida writes that it hasbeen written with the historical viewthat past history should be used toimprove the future ages and used as aparagon of humanity. He also saysthat it is a historical work that hopesto "see history as a view into thefuture," and that "when one is unableto learn from history and there is nolesson written, history repeats itself."Maybe it was because I was remem-bering my 50 years with the SocialistParty, but my heart was painedstrongly by Mr. Kushida's words.

As I was feeling such things, I wassent a book called "Doranrenritsu -Sono Kachukara (The TumultuousCoalition - From within)" by ShigeruItoh, who was elected along with mein the 1976 General Election. It was abook which reflected on "the Historyof the Fall of the Socialist Party - towhich I staked my life and which wasthe first of the opposition parties for along time." Mr. Itoh had the experi-

ence of being within the Hosokawaadministration as a cabinet member.However, reality was different fromhis ambitions, and he relates his trou-bled feelings at how the SocialistParty, "let the LDP come back topower and became itself divided andsmall," "carving a scar in my heart andbody that will not disappear." Whilestill filled with remorse, he lookedback on the "lost 10 years" and wrotewith the wish that the Socialist Partywould be able to escape from itspredicament.

Mr. Itoh says that within the tumul-tuous coalition of around 10 years inwhich the administration changedfrom Hosokawa in 1998 to Hata,Murayama, and to Hashimoto, thatone "small" wheel had been turned. Iwould like to talk about this a little aswell.

At the beginning of 1989, the politi-cal situation moved violently in antici-pation of the Summer Upper Houseelections. There was also a possibilitysurfacing for a double election withthe Lower House. In such an environ-ment, the four opposition parties:Socialist, Komeito, DemocraticSocialist Party (DSP) and SocialDemocratic Party (SDP) decided tohold a Party Leader Meeting and con-sider the basic policies of the coalitiongovernment. The four parties' policyaffairs chiefs got together repeatedlyto create the "policies to obtain thepeople's agreement and trust" forestablishing an administration toreplace the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP), and show motivation towardputting this into action.

They sang loudly that "Our basicstance is to begin with the here andnow - not to "adjust the differences"between the various party policies of

the past, but together create and posi-tively cultivate a new blueprint whilemoving surely toward its realization."However, Mr. Itoh, who was one ofthe policy affairs chiefs, grieves that"we could handle the simple problemof adjustment, but we reached a dead-lock with regard to the problems ofeach party's history, and we could notovercome this." The deadlock thatthey could not open up was theresponse toward the Japan-U.S.Security Treaty, the Self DefenseForce, the Korean Peninsula, andenergy policy (development ofnuclear power).

In the end, the superficial blade willbe weak and will break. If all onedoes is sing of a change in administra-tion without working to obtain theability for leadership, one cannotobtain the support of the people. Fora party that cannot even stay undivid-ed within the party to expect to cometo agreement with other parties is animpossible thing in itself. It was notjust a policy. The party leaders them-selves did not have any strategytoward taking the administration orany strong determination that wouldinspire the people. The obvious resultwas that power-sharing talks wentaround in circles from the start.

The energy policy, especially howto deal with nuclear power, was sym-bolic of the situation. Some peoplesay that the reason why we have thenuclear power technology of today isbecause the Socialist Party continuedto give strong opposition and criti-cism. However, what the peoplewanted from the Socialist Party wasnot the words "We are going to estab-lish a joint administration." Theywanted the truth about what energypolicy the socialist party had planned


if they were opposed to nuclear ener-gy. The Socialist Party did not answerthis question. I still lament that theSocialist Party could not get passedideology and show consistency in itspolicy.

The politician, Hiroo Wada, whomI supported within the policymakingadvisory board, was also an elegantperson who enjoyed oil painting andhaiku.

"While the Party song is sung loudly,snow continues to fall""As snow blows, Socialist Party mem-bers come out putting their armsaround each other."I find such a haiku when I open Mr.

Wada's book of haiku. It reminds methat the Socialist convention was heldusually between January andFebruary. The above haiku was abouta convention that was held in thesnow.

"Walking toward the snowy mountain,I feel that something is missing."With this haiku is the note, "The

Socialist Party is working with the goalof attaining the administration...butthere is something very importantmissing. I worry that what is missingis the fundamental trust of the peo-ple." I strongly felt for Mr. Wada,who served in the position ofSecretary of State in the YoshidaAdministration, and although urgedto join the Conservative Party, decid-ed to bet his political career on theSocialist Party.

Induced by the wind of the nubecu-la, Basho goes to the Tohoku districtwith his walking stick. There he visitsHiraizumi, the remains of the luxuri-ous lives of three generations ofFujiwara, and writes the poem:

"In the summer grass I feel the remainsof a soldier's dream"

His note says, "Putting my sedgehat on the ground, I stand with tearsfalling from my eyes for a long time."

When I look back on the 50 years ofthe Socialist Party, I would feel toowretched telling myself that the Partyfulfilled its historical role as an oppo-sition party. The Socialist Party hascontinued to debate with heat whiledividing into two and into three. Itmay have been that the memberswere too naive or serious... but when Ithink of whether we have been able tofind a lesson within these arguments,I feel downhearted. On the remainsof unproductive debates, not evensummer grass grows.

I was also "a small wheel" withinthe Party. I do not think that it is gra-cious of me, who was in such a posi-tion, to criticize the Party's organiza-tion now, but I sooth the pain in myheart and let fall my tears as I pick upthe pieces of history one by one.

The other day, I took from my shelfthe essays of Professor Itsuro Sakisaka"Waga Shogai no Tatakai (My LifeBattle)." I feel nostalgic looking at thesignature that he signed in my book"Spring 1975 - To Shigeru Goto." It isa book in which I was able to see a dif-ferent side of the professor "thehuman, Sakisaka" who never strayedfrom the path of Marxism/Leninism,and I ended up staying up all night toread it over.

In this book was the following:"At the executive meeting for 'the

Gathering to Encourage the SocialistParty,' it was decided that HiromiArisawa would be asked to becomeChairman. I was told, 'You ask him,Sakisaka.'"

Professor Sakisaka gladly took onthe responsibility, and obtained apromise from Mr. Arisawa to meet at

the Shiseido, a restaurant in Ginza.He chose this place because it was arestaurant where, before the War, heused to often meet Gitaro Omori,Takao Tsuchiya, Hiromi Arisawa andothers who used to be aids in theDepartment of Economics at theUniversity of Tokyo.

He continues: "I was around 20 minutes late get-

ting to the Shiseido, but Arisawa waswaiting for me. I did not waste timein asking whether he would beChairman, and he agreed. There wereno problems, and our business lastedonly 2 or 3 minutes. After that, wetalked about old times. I have alwaysliked that about Arisawa. We thensaid goodbye, commenting that nowwe would have chances to meet moreoften."

From this short paragraph, one canfeel a heartwarming friendshipbetween the two. I wonder if this wasduring the time that Mr. Arisawa wasActing Chairman of the AtomicEnergy Commission. Or maybe afterhe retired with honor saying, "Fromnow on I would like to quietly watchover the direction nuclear powerdevelopment takes" and then becamethe Chairman of the Japan AtomicIndustrial Forum, Inc. In any case, theepisode of Mr. Sakisaka going to con-vince Mr. Arisawa to becomeChairman of the meeting, when Mr.Arisawa was putting all his energyinto the peaceful uses of nuclear ener-gy, is very interesting. It is becausethis is when the Socialist Party drasti-cally changed course to anti-nuclearpower.

It is thought of by the public thatmany of the Party members who shout-ed against nuclear power were activistsfrom the "Sakisaka Classroom." It may


have been because words of the profes-sor as follows were taken as doctrinaireand made into scripture for activity.

"Even as they line up hundreds andthousands of policies, and playaround with leftist rhetoric, it onlylooks as if they are drowning in theslough of reformation-ism."

"I do not think that the Socialist Partypolicy policymaking advisory board islacking in policy planning ability. Theflaw in the Socialist Party is that as soonas those planned policies are printed,and these printed matters are put intothe shelves, the argument is ended."("The Fundamental Issues concerningMagazine "Socialism")

However, I, who was taught by theprofessor, believe that he especiallyhated doctrine. It was the autumn of1948. I was invited by Hideo Nakai,who had been taught by the Professorat Kyushu University (and who satnext to me at the Socialist Party's poli-cymaking advisory board) to visit theprofessor at his home which was inJiyugaoka at that time. I was nervousin front of the professor, but he cameup to me and said, "It just came out,"and gave me his book of essays"Utagaiuru Seishin (The mind that candoubt)."

Among the many confessions thatMarx's daughters, Jenny and Laura,asked of him was "What is yourfavorite motto?" Marx answered, "Allcan be doubted." Mr. Sakisaka, whointroduced this episode in his book,writes, "These are not the words of aweak skeptic. And they were not partof a game of a person who doubts fordoubt's sake. It is doubt in order toestablish his own faith." Since then,the words "All can be doubted" havebecome my favorite words.

One day, I and the professor were

enjoying a talk about the art of suchpainters as Cezanne and van Gogh.When it comes to art and literature,the professor's strict and forbiddingface became that of a tranquil, goodand kind old man. Because I liked theprofessor this way, I was avoiding dif-ficult theoretical topics to create anatmosphere of a young lover of litera-ture. He suddenly asked me, "Whydid you join the Socialist Party?"When I answered, "Because when Iread Lenin's "Imperialism" translatedby Suekichi Aono, I felt as if myyoung militarism hardened face hadbeen kicked", the professor ah-ed witha face full of understanding. I had bor-rowed the book from a friend's fatherwho kept it hidden and it was the firstsocialist document that I had everread. Maybe because it had been hid-den away in the basement, the pageshad changed into a sepia color. It wasa thin book, but because I was starv-ing for reading material, I read it withintense concentration. It was a bookthat changed my life greatly.

The professor's wife brought us cof-fee. It was accompanied by Yokan(sweet bean jelly), one of the profes-sor's favorite treats. There was apause in our conversation. I remem-ber with nostalgia the professor's facewhen he said, "Lenin used to lecturewith the large map of Russia behindhim and laborers, farmers and sol-diers before him, that in the construc-tion of the Soviet Union, they mustmove forward with the electrificationof the whole land." The professor ofcourse knew that I was actively speak-ing up about the nuclear power issue.At the same time, the SocialistAssociation represented by the profes-sor had placed an essay in the maga-zine "Socialism" which targeted

nuclear power for an antimonopolyargument, saying "for general monop-olist capital such as electricity, whichcreates an enormous amount of assets,heavy machinery used for construc-tion, electric machinery, metals andcement, it is a solution that bringsforth big profit." It is unmistakablethat such propaganda influenced thesocialist activists who fought againstnuclear power.

However, the professor never said,"What you are doing is contributingto monopolization." He subtlybrought up the story about Lenin.And he quietly watched me as I pro-moted nuclear power. In addition, hewent to ask Mr. Arisawa, who wasdedicated to nuclear power develop-ment, if he would become chairmanof 'the Gathering to Encourage theSocialist Party,' a party that hadbecome anti-nuclear power. This pro-fessor, I continued to revere and haveaffection for even with the furiouswhirlpool of disputes within theparty.

There is an adverse wind blowingtoward nuclear power now, but therelative strength of the voice againstnuclear power within the Party is get-ting weaker. It is natural that a partythat does not have consistent policy inthe mid to long term will be rejectedby the people. In the Chinese tradi-tional story, the 108 heroes who heldthe Liangshanpo (a marsh in the val-ley between the mountains of a dis-trict in China) as headquarters weretragically destroyed. I think aboutthat famous story and overlap it with"My 50 years with the Socialist party"with feelings of contrition.

Former Member of theHouse of Representatives( )

CNFC Report


Monju, the prototype fast breeder reac-tor (FBR) constructed in Tsuruga City,Fukui Prefecture by the Japan NuclearCycle Development Institute (JNC), sub-mitted a "Request for Prior Agreement onRemediation Program to Deal withSodium Leakage Issues" to both FukuiPref. and Tsuruga City in December 2000based on the Local Safety Agreement. Inresponse to this, discussions in the localcommunity about the improvement ofprogram Monju is coming to a conclusionand the odds are becoming strong that adecision will be made by the local govern-ments within this year.

Operation of Monju has been stoppedsince December 1995, when there occureda sodium leak accident at the secondaryloop piping room. The national govern-ment's safety assessment with regard toits repair and measures to prevent sodi-um leakage was completed in December2002; however, the local residents broughtsuits against the national government in1983 with the objective of nullifying gov-ernment permission for the nuclear reac-tor facility Monju. The court verdict afterthe second hearing on the suits was givenon January 27, this year, in which theKanagawa branch of the Nagoya HighCourt fully recognized the claims of thepetitioners that "There have been errorsand faults in the safety assessment thatcan not be overlooked, and which, as aresult, nullify the government permis-sion," overturning the court verdict of thefirst hearing, and ruling against thenational government. The governmentappealed the verdict on January 31.

On March 26, the Nuclear SafetyCommission (NSC), which is in charge ofreactor safety assessment, expressed theview that the safety assessment of theMonju was sufficient with regard to thetechnical issues debated at the HighCourt.

Because this court verdict could notonly prevent the Monju from restartingoperation but could shake the very foun-dations of the nuclear fuel cycle policy, thenational government and JNC have beenconducting explanatory sessions at confer-ences of the Atomic Energy Society ofJapan and various debriefing sessions,local explanatory meetings and otherswith regard to the safety and the necessi-ty of the Monju development in order toincrease the understanding of specificallythe local residents and the Japanese peo-ple in general.

On the other hand, the Fukui Pref.established the "Specialist StudyCommittee of Monju Safety" over twoyears in order to independently inspectand consider the safety of the Monju - byconducting research and deliberationfrom the standpoint of science and tech-nology. This specialist committee puttogether a report draft based on the issueon September 16 saying that "the Monjuwill have the sufficient safety qualifica-tions from the technical standpoint afterrenovations." With regard to the HighCourt verdict on the Monju lawsuitagainst the government and the technicalissues pointed out in the verdict as well,they conclude that "from the standpoint ofscience and technology, there is no need toassume that such a thing would happenin reality." This committee willbe conducting explanatorymeetings toward the localassembly as well as toward thepublic and invite public partici-pation with regard to theirreport draft in order to completethe final report by earlyNovember of this year.

Govern of Fukui Pref.announced at this year'sSeptember regular prefecturalassembly regarding the Monju

renovation program that he would makea comprehensive judgement after obtain-ing the final report of the said committee -considering the national government'swork to secure the safety of Monju and itsrole in technological research and develop-ment, the direction of the suit against thegovernment, discussion within the assem-bly and the opinion of the local TsurugaCity. The Tsuruga City Mayor also hasexpressed the wish to make a final judge-ment within the year if possible, using thesaid committee's final report as reference.

The FBR fuel cycle technology canimprove the usability of uranium to 60times the present by converting the urani-um 238 to plutonium 239, which wouldmake it possible to use the uraniumresources that have been found up to thepresent for over 2,000 years. In addition,the FBR can burn spent fuels from lightwater reactors, which are the main reac-tors operated at present, and convert thetransuranic elements (heavier elementthan uranium) and long-lived fission prod-ucts (elements that continue to emit radi-ation for a long period of time) into lightelements or short-lived elements.Through this, the amount of high levelradioactive waste can be decreased andthe isolation period of final disposal can beshortened. Because of this, FBRs areexpected to take an important role from

Renovation of "Monju" Will Start Soon?

CNFC Report


the point of view of stable energy supplyin the 21st century and lowering the bur-den on the environment.

Internationally, ten countries partici-pated in the Generation IV NuclearEnergy Systems (Gen VI) that was estab-

lished by the U.S. in 2000, calling againinterests in FBR development. Monju isan FBR power plant that could becomethe base for research and development ofFBR internationally, and we hope thatthis valuable national asset will not be put

to waste or that the national budgetwould not be used only for the mainte-nance of the research facility but thatMonju would resume operation as soon aspossible in order to contribute to the devel-opment of FBR around the world.

Invitation of N-Facility to Secure Financial Resources for Public Welfare-Plan for Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel in Mutsu City-

• First Request of its kind for Interim N-FuelStorage Facility

On June 13, 2003, a special committee ofthe Mutsu City Assembly reported to theassembly that it was viable for Mutsu tohost an interim storage facility for spentnuclear fuels. Acting upon this information,on June 26 Mayor Masashi Sugiyama ofMutsu City announced the city's intentionto offer a site for the facility. On July 23, thecity requested the Tokyo Electric Power Co.Inc. (TEPCO) to construct the interim stor-age facility for their spent fuels there. Afterthat, on September 11, the assembly reject-ed a move for a referendum on the offer ofthe storage facility, which had been request-ed by some groups of citizens. In this way, aplan to offer a site for the storage facility inthe city, which has been discussed since2000, actually began to take shape.

• Mayor Eyes Financial Resources for the CityThe plan to invite the facility was

revealed at the end of August 2000, whenthe To-o Nippo Press, a prominent localpaper, conducted an interview with MayorSugiyama and reported that he was dis-cussing with TEPCO the possibility of invit-ing an "interim storage facility" to storespent fuels from nuclear power plants.Mayor Sugiyama also expressed his ambi-tion in an interview by our magazine(Spring 2001, No.33) saying, "I want to con-struct schools in the city that can be admit-ted by the world. Also, considering thefuture consolidation of municipalities, Iwant to improve the medical system to dealwith the greater numbers of elderly peoplein our aging society. In order to secure thenew financial resources needed for the real-ization of these objectives, I want to encour-age the construction of nuclear facilities,

especially an interim storage facility forspent fuels, in the city."

Most municipalities waver on the issue ofnuclear facilities because they do not want togive bad feelings among their residents. Inthe face of popular sentiment, MayorSugiyama looked beyond the rest and begana discussion with TEPCO concerning thepossibilities of constructing the interim stor-age facility. All electric power companies willneed to construct such facilities in the future;Mayor Sugiyama decided to use them asfinancial resources for the future educationsystem and public welfare of Mutsu City,although those who oppose nuclear facilitiesseemed to regard his move as "insane."

Later, in November 2000, Mutsu Cityrequested TEPCO to begin carrying out afeasibility survey regarding a site for the"Recycle Fuel Reserve Center" (the officialname later given to the interim storagefacility). In January 2001, TEPCO set upthe "Mutsu Survey Office" in Mutsu Cityand began its field survey on April 1.TEPCO completed the survey in March2003 and submitted a report on the viabilityof Mutsu City as a potential constructionsite in the beginning of April.Upon receiving the report,Mutsu City held an "ExpertMeeting Regarding an InterimStorage Facility" including col-lege staff and scholars (thepanel consisted of seven mem-bers, and met five times). Itsubmitted a report to theMayor affirming that construc-tion was technically possible.Furthermore, the issue wasdiscussed at a briefing for citi-zens and with a special com-mittee of the Mutsu City

Assembly. Finally, the Mutsu City Mayorofficially expressed the intention of the cityto invite the construction of the facility.

• Awaiting the Approval of the New PrefecturalGovernor

They now need to wait for the approval ofthe new Aomori Prefectural Governor, Mr.Shingo Mimura, who was elected on June29. The new Governor has been the Mayorof Momoishi Town and as a member of theHouse of Representatives. Mutsu was oneof his home districts in the elections, so he isthought to have a deep understandingabout the municipal government andfinances of Mutsu City. It is expected thatthe Governor will give his approval soon.

The winds of public opinion in the nationare blowing strongly against nuclear ener-gy, and the financial resources of municipal-ities nationwide are tight due to economicrecession. It is in these circumstances thatthe Mayor must try to meet the objectives ofboth the nation and the city. He is ready todo what is necessary to prepare for thefuture. We respect his ambition and contin-ue to support his plans and ideas.

"Recycle Fuel Reserve Center" (Image) 130m x 60m x (height) 30m(Source: Brochure of TEPCO)

Iran, under suspicion of developingnuclear weapons, on October 21 announcedthat it would fully cooperate with theInternational Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) to clear the doubt. It is very signifi-cant that Iran has expressed its intention toavoid conflict as a member of the interna-tional community. Iran agreed to suspendits uranium enrichment program; to signand promptly fulfill the Additional Protocol

to the Safeguards Agreement; and to coop-erate with IAEA during its inspection activi-ties and by providing information.However, if Iran does not carry out itsresponsibility to do the process early andconcretely, these will be empty promises.We look forward to Iran's positive action forpeace.

For the upcoming House of Representa-tives election on November 9, each party

announced its manifesto and major policies,but a specific energy policy was hardlymentioned. Securing stable energy supplyis an important issue that concerns nationalsecurity. We hope each party and individ-ual Diet member will think about energyresource issues and seriously consider acomprehensive energy strategy for thenation.

Editor's Postscripts

Plutonium Management in Japan*1

Plutonium nitrate, etc.(plutonium at all stages from the time it is separated after dissolu-tion until it goes through blending and conversion)

545(539)

Total

Plutonium oxide(plutonium oxide laid up in stor-ing containers)

806(842)

260(303)

Plutonium oxide(plutonium oxide laid up in stor-ing containers)

2,530(2,323)

Total

New fuel products (in fabricated fuel assemblies)

Plutonium in stages of experi-ment and fabrication

3,344(3,294)

308(420)

506(551)

Total

R&D (critical facilities, etc.)

Commercial Reactors

Fugen (prototype ATR)

Monju (prototype FBR)

Joyo (experimental Fast Reactor)

1,256(1,546)

445(444)

415(670)

0(0)

367(367)

Japanese inventories of plutonium are made public once a year. Plutonium in-ventories existing at the end of Decem-ber 2002 are as follows:[The tables in parenthesis are previous year values.]

(Unit: kg Pu)

1. Separated Plutonium (as of the end of December 2002 )

• JNC*2 Reprocessing Plant

• JNC Facility for Plutonium Fuel Fab-rication

• Reactors, etc. *3

Quantities recovered from the JNC reprocessing plant

Total

Monju, Joyo and Fugen 14

(187)

180 (86)

180 (86)

0(0)

Quantities shipped from over-seas

• Quantities Used

U.S.A.

Russia

U.K.

France

China

Japan

Germany

Belgium

Switzerland

Plutonium inSpent Fuel

Non-usedPlutonium

375

61

41

173.2

---*

90

51.77

20

8

45.0

35.8

82.4

80.5

Non

5.6

10.9

2.9

<0.05

(*China published only its national holdings civil un-irradiated plutonium.)

3. Practical Use of Plutonium Oxide as Fuel Material (2002)

• Quantities Supplied

U.K.FranceTotal

11,640 (10,713)21,611 (21,666)33,251 (32,379)

2. Plutonium Oxide at Overseas(Foreign services are commissioned to fabricate most of them into MOX fuel for use in Japan's light water re-actors.)

(as of the end of December 2002)

[Reference Data]Each state's national holdings of civil un-irradiated

plutonium and of plutonium contained in spent civil reactor fuel published by IAEA under "Guidelines for the Management of Plutonium (INFCIRC/549 of March 16, 1998)" as of December 2001 are as follows: (Unit: ton Pu; Civil plutonium and plutonium declared excess to defense needs is contained.)

*1: A combined total of fissionable plutonium and non-fissionable isotopes

*2: JNC: Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute*3: These are held in reactor for the purposes of new

fuel products and research and development.

29(64)

council for nuclear fuel cycle · lation was 2.5 billion in the 1950s when the "atoms for...

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