JAPAN: Nuclear Industry Battered by Mishaps, Public Distrust

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Sep 16 1997 (IPS) - Enjoying a wave of optimism only a few years ago, Japan’s nuclear industry finds itself hobbled by a string of accidents and growing public awareness about the dangers inherent in nuclear energy.

“The nuclear industry in Japan is finished. Any attempts by the Japanese government to revive it will just not work,” said Mika Obayashi, of the Citizen’s Nuclear Information Center.

Indeed, the latest blow to the industry, proudly touted by the government as the best solution to the world’s energy needs, was the cover-up of a fire that resulted in a dangerous radiation leak that had affected some workers.

The state-run Donen, or Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Cooperation, reported in August that its nuclear waste storage plant in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, had an explosion last March.

As the revelation stunned the public, Japanese television showed corroded drums full of dangerous, low-level nuclear waste including uranium, stocked in concrete pits filled with more than a metre deep of water.

Some 2,000 drums have been stored in five concrete pits since 1967. The media reported that the pits have been neglected, and that the accumulated water contained radiation. Soil samples showed contamination which were 15 times greater than normal.

Late last month, Japanese officials said the Tokaimura plant had been leaking low-level radiation for 30 years.

“The corporation (Donen) was supposed to be the country’s top institution responsible for research and development in the field of nuclear technology. The latest scandal has shown that reputation to be unfounded,” wrote the ‘Yomuiri Shinbun’, Japan’s largest daily.

This was just the latest in series of accidents that have harmed the reputation of the nuclear industry.

Since a coolant leakage in December 1995, the Monju reactor has been closed down. Monju, the world’s only operating prototype fast- breeder reactor, employs plutonium for creating nuclear energy. Last year, residents of Maki town in Miigata prefecture rejected plans to build a nuclear plant in their area.

Obayashi says continued reports about mishaps and the subsequent criticism from mainstream media are significant in shaping public opinions about nuclear power.

The mainstream media had lent its tentative support to the ambitious development of a sophisticated nuclear industry in Japan, but its increasingly wary attitude of late reflects an unprecedented change in its views.

This could lead to a more critical review of the government’s huge budget for the nuclear industry, analysts say. “There is now a deepening distrust of accepting the construction of nuclear power plants. People are angry and confused,” Obayashi said.

So far however, there is little sign the government plans to make an about-turn on nuclear energy. The Science and Technology Agency, under which Donen operates, issued a statement last month saying it will do all it can to build up the trust of the public.

The government has called on Donen to punish several top officials in charge of operations. Angered by accidents that had been kept from the government and the public, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto called on Donen to reform and improve its responsibility by becoming more open to the public.

The government has also suggested scrapping Donen and establishing a new entity to have greater autonomy and concentrate on the development of fast-breeder reactors and disposal of high- level nuclear waste.

But Baku Nishio, head of ‘Anti-Nuke News’, an NGO newsletter, says reforms suggested by the government do not go far enough.

“A lot of what the government is saying is of face value. There is no indication of a recognition of the people’s fear and a move away from nuclear power energy,” he said.

Critics say that in the last five years, the government has spent nearly 20 million U.S. dollars on a research programme on cold fusion alone. This is a process that experts believed may create room-temperature nuclear energy and thus produce a cheap energy source.

In late August however, Japanese researchers concluded the cold fusion concept did not exist. Government and private for the research will now be terminated, officials said.

Meantime, NGOs are gearing up for heated debates at a conference on climate at Kyoto in December, where Japan is expected to argue for support of nuclear energy on the pretext that is does not emit carbon and is therefore clean.

“Our biggest concern is that the promotion of nuclear energy will work against the concept of energy efficiency and renewable energy which is an important alternative in combating global warming,” explained Obayashi.

Activists argue that sustainable energy, including renewable energy such as solar and wind power, has enormous potential to become the next century’s main energy source and must be discussed as an alternative to nuclear power.

Not enough attention is given to curtailing energy demand and use, as governments focus almost solely on building more capacity to fill a growing appetite for power.

A 1996 report by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry argues that further nuclear capacity expansion of 70 reactors is necessary by the year 2030, if Japan is to keep within targets for containing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Up to 30 percent of Japan’s energy needs are supplied by 51 commercial nuclear plants. The Japanese government wants to increase this to 40 percent by the year 2010, even though there are signs the industry’s popularity is waning. Anti-nuclear activists say there have been only two orders for nuclear reactions in the country since 1990.

“But what is important to set out is an alternative plan to reduce the energy needs of countries like Japan,” Obayashi said. “Not a plan to build more nuclear reactors against a backdrop of rising public distrust.”