Japan's Nuclear Industry Under Fire

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Japan's Nuclear Industry Under Fire

TOKAIMURA, Japan (AP) - Its white buildings bordered by neatly pruned 
pines on one side and the deep blue Pacific Ocean on the other, the 
Tokai nuclear power station is the picture of serenity. 

Inside, officials boast the plant is also the epitome of safety. They 
point to clear plastic shields that cover levers and dials in the 
control room to force operators to think twice before they touch. 

But Japan's nuclear power industry, for decades respected for 
supplying affordable, inexhaustible energy to a power-guzzling 
country with precious little coal and virtually no oil, is under 
fire. 

Five months ago, three workers at a nearby fuel processing plant set 
off an uncontrolled nuclear reaction that exposed 439 townspeople and 
workers to radiation. One worker died from radiation sickness in 
December. 

It was Japan's worst nuclear accident. Today, the industry is 
struggling to redeem itself with an outraged public and a deeply 
embarrassed government. 

Policymakers stand by their unofficial goal of building 20 new 
reactors by 2010, but they've been forced to admit the overall 
nuclear program has serious shortcomings. 

``The accident uncovered problems,'' said Toshiyuki Anegawa of the 
government's Nuclear Safety Division. ``We've got a lot of hurdles 
standing in the way of development.'' 

The biggest one may be public distrust. 

Japan received a harsh introduction to nuclear power with the bombs 
that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and killed 210,000 
people. Over the years, however, most Japanese embraced its obvious 
benefits - today it accounts for 30 percent of the nation's 
electricity. 

Now the industry itself is to blame for its predicament. Despite 
insistence that plants are safe, Japan's nuclear reactors have been 
plagued by accidents and cover-ups. In 1997, officials hid the extent 
of damage to a state-run nuclear reprocessing plant in Tokaimura 
after a fire, which exposed 37 workers to radiation. 

Some nuclear power opponents see the 1997 fire and the Sept. 30 
accident as glaring evidence the industry cannot be trusted to 
supervise itself. Industry officials acknowledge that cavalier safety 
practices contributed to September's ``criticality event'' at the JCO 
Co.'s nuclear fuel processing plant. 

Three JCO workers mixing fuel ignored regulations and combined nitric 
acid with 35.5 pounds of highly enriched uranium - seven times the 
approved amount. To speed the task, they mixed the ingredients by 
hand in buckets and beakers instead of using the plant's mechanized 
tanks. 

Officials later admitted that plant workers often ignored safety 
regulations. 

``It's shameful,'' said Tastuya Murakami, the mayor of Tokaimura. 
``Japan thought its nuclear technology was superior and assumed 
something like this wouldn't happen.'' 

He says the accident left his town, whose population of 34,000 relies 
on the industry as its main employer, economically and 
psychologically scarred. Consumers still shy away from local produce, 
and villagers complain the value of their land has fallen. 

``It would be difficult to separate Tokaimura from the nuclear 
program,'' Murakami acknowledged. ``But we have to overcome the 
attitude that energy equals nuclear power.'' 

Such sentiment is increasing nationwide. Last month, a small-town 
mayor in northwestern Japan was re-elected on promises to block 
construction of a nuclear plant. 

New laws require periodic inspections of nuclear processing plants 
and government inspectors at all nuclear facilities. A consortium of 
35 nuclear power companies and related firms called the Nuclear 
Safety Network, meanwhile, is emphasizing ``self-responsibility,'' 
saying workers and managers should work harder on safety as well. 

Nonetheless, the industry's future remains in question. 

A centerpiece of Japan's nuclear ambitions is an experimental fast-
breeder reactor that would produce more plutonium than it would 
consume as fuel. But the reactor was shut down indefinitely in 1995 
after a volatile liquid sodium leak and a subsequent cover-up by 
officials. 

The industry suffered another setback last month, when plans to power 
nuclear reactors with an imported mix of plutonium and uranium were 
postponed after the British supplier was discovered to have falsified 
data about quality. 

Here in Tokaimura, meanwhile, the JCO facility remains closed, and a 
10-foot-tall wall has gone up around the building where the reaction 
occurred. 

``For nuclear industry insiders, the future looks grim,'' said Yuko 
Fujita, a Keio University physics professor and anti-nuclear 
activist. ``The accident is a psychological defeat.''

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Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
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