Pacific Island leaders tour Japanese NPP

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@aecl.ca>]

..in this web posting, I particularly like the last paragraph:

"All agreed at the meeting that nuclear power is a valuable asset in
reducing the use of fossil fuels and the generation of so called "greenhouse
gases" that cause warming of the earth, the melting of polar icecaps, sea
level rise, and danger to low-lying Pacific islands."

....nothing like a visit to an actual NPP to change people's minds.

Jaro
frantaj@aecl.ca

http://pidp.ewc.hawaii.edu/pireport/2000/April/04-27-01.htm
PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT
PACIFIC ISLANDERS AIR NUCLEAR SHIPPING CONCERNS AT JAPAN MEETING
By Al Hulsen
HAMAOKA, Japan (April 25, 2000 - PIDP/CPIS)---The sticky issue of shipping
radioactive nuclear materials and mixed oxide fuel (MOX) between Japan and
Europe via Pacific Ocean routes was given a delicate airing by two Pacific
Island leaders and several officials Tuesday at the Hamaoka Nuclear Power
Station, about 140 miles west of Tokyo.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Dr. Terepai Maoate and Niue Premier Sani
Lakatani were the only heads of government to join the trip to the giant
four-reactor station facing the Pacific, and a special meeting that followed
the weekend PALM 2000 Japan-Pacific Island leaders' summit in the southern
resort city of Miyazaki.
One reliable source said the Forum Secretariat had discouraged a major show
of interest in the facility "to safeguard the integrity of the leaders," and
recommended primarily attendance by island nation technical experts.
Following a two-hour trip by bullet train from Tokyo past Mt. Fuji and
another 40-minute bus trip through tea growing country to the nuclear power
facility, Maoate and Lakatani, joined by officials from other South Pacific
Forum nations, were given a rare inside look at the plant's reactor, control
room and rigorous safety procedures.
They then joined in a candid discussion of the contentious issue of
shipping, over which there is concern that an accident aboard a transport
vessel could result in severe Pacific human safety, environmental and
economic crises.
The Cook Islands' Maoate said, "I have learned a lot of things that I didn't
know about nuclear power stations. I am convinced of the safety measures
that have been shown to us, of the plant itself."
He added, however, that "there should be a similar program on the
transportation of the spent fuel, which is of a lot of concern to the people
of the Pacific Islands.
"We live in a hurricane prone area," he said. "Nothing can stand in the way
of hurricanes.
"You have to show us it is safe and your ships even can escape hurricanes."
Kohji Kaneko, Secretary General of the Overseas Reprocessing Committee,
responded by saying, "The same safety measures applied to ground facilities
also are applied to the vessels." He invited Pacific Island experts to visit
the transport vessels to see the procedures for themselves.
One Pacific representative at the meeting, Terry Chapman of Niue, suggested
that the issue of nuclear shipments through the Pacific -- on routes through
the Panama Canal, the Strait of Magellan through the tip of South America,
and through the far South Pacific to Africa -- could be eliminated if Japan
built its own reprocessing plants.
Kaneko said a small commercial reprocessing plant now is being constructed
with French help in Amori prefecture but, for the time being, it is
essential the nuclear waste shipments still be made to the United Kingdom
and France two to three times a year.