Gov't panel urges quick resumption of Monju reactor operation

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

Gov't panel urges quick resumption of Monju reactor operation

TOKYO, Aug. 11 (Kyodo) - The government's commission on atomic energy 
called Friday for Japan's prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor, 
Monju, to resume operation as early as possible. 

The Atomic Energy Commission under the Prime Minister's Office also 
called on the state to keep the ''pluthermal'' project, in which 
plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel is to be burned inside light-
water reactors to generate electricity. 

The commission filed the requests in a draft compiled Friday on a 
long-term plan on research and development of nuclear power. 

It plans to finalize the draft by the end of the year after hearing 
various views from the public, commission members said. 

If finalized, it will be the ninth long-term plan. The first one was 
released in 1956. 

The plan will be the cornerstone of the nation's nuclear power policy 
in the coming five years, the members said. 

The draft says Japan should stick to its policy of recycling nuclear 
fuel, using plutonium obtained through reprocessing used fuel. 

The report, however, downgrades fast-breeder nuclear reactors from 
''the mainstream of nuclear power generation in the future'' to ''a 
major technical choice in the future.'' 

The draft puts Monju, which is located in Fukui Prefecture on the Sea 
of Japan coast, at the core of research and development of the 
nation's plan to promote fast-speed breeders. 

The reactor, which is designed to generate more plutonium than it 
consumes, has been shut off since a massive coolant leakage occurred 
at the plant in Tsuruga in December 1995. 

The draft says the government will steadily promote the pluthermal 
program in the future and expresses hope that electric power 
companies will put emphasis on the project. 

The program has been suspended following disclosures last year that 
the British maker of the MOX fuel, British Nuclear Fuels plc, had 
falsified quality-control data on shipments bound for Japan. 

The commission urges the private sector to start storing used nuclear 
fuels by 2010 and disposing of high-level radioactive waste 
underground in the 2030s and 2040s, according to the draft. 

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