Fuel arrive in storage site in Niigata nuclear plant

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Fuel arrive in storage site in Niigata nuclear plant



KASHIWAZAKI, Japan, March 24 (Kyodo) -



Workers on Saturday completed the unloading of plutonium-uranium 

mixed oxide (MOX) fuel from a British cargo ship that arrived in a 

special port in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, earlier in the day 

amid tight police security. 



The fuel, containing a total of some 206 kilograms of plutonium, was 

unloaded from the 5,271-ton Pacific Pintail freighter and delivered 

to a storage site inside Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s (TEPCO) 

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station compound by around 4 p.m. 



The cargo ship, which set sail from the French port of Cherbourg in 

January with 28 containers of the highly toxic fuel, left the port 

later in the day. 



It was the second shipment of MOX fuel to Japan. 



TEPCO and Kansai Electric Power Co. took delivery of the first-ever 

shipment of MOX fuel in the fall of 1999 for TEPCO's No. 1 nuclear 

power plant in Fukushima Prefecture and Kansai Electric's Takahama 

nuclear power station in Fukui Prefecture. 



But fabrication of quality control data by British Nuclear Fuels PLC 

on these shipments of MOX fuel prevented them from going ahead with 

their respective plans. 



The Japan Coast Guard and police set up a security cordon at sea and 

on land Saturday morning. 



The Niigata prefectural police mobilized 400 police officers to 

secure the area, while coast guard helicopters and planes patrolled 

the air. 



Antinuclear activists in the village of Kariwa have opposed the use 

of MOX fuel at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, and plan to call 

for a local referendum to decide the issue. 



About 300 activists staged a protest on the coast near the port, 

chanting slogans and carrying banners reading ''Let's stop 

pluthermal.'' 



MOX, a pelletized mixture of uranium dioxide and plutonium dioxide, 

is designed to be burned in light-water reactors in a practice known 

as ''pluthermal'' use, a nuclear fuel recycling procedure. Plutonium 

is extracted by reprocessing the spent nuclear fuel from nuclear 

power plants. 



Niigata Prefecture is rapidly emerging as the front-runner to 

introduce MOX fuel for use in power stations in Japan. 



Fukushima Prefecture was expected to be the first prefecture to 

introduce MOX fuel. However, Fukushima Gov. Eisaku Sato said in late 

February that the prefecture will not accept the use of MOX fuel at 

the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant for the time being. 



It is also unlikely Fukui Prefecture will accept MOX fuel at the 

Takahama station within a couple of years. 



Attention is therefore focused on what action local government 

leaders such as Niigata Gov. Ikuo Hirayama will take. Local 

government leaders seem reluctant to accept MOX fuel for pluthermal 

use. 



TEPCO is still planning to load the MOX fuel in the No. 3 Reactor of 

the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant during a regular checkup to start in mid-

April. 



Masato Idesawa, head of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, told a news 

conference he does not plan to change the schedule for loading the 

MOX fuel at the reactor. 



Idesawa also said it is important to recover trust from local 

residents on the matter. 



Fast-breeder reactors were once expected to carry the main thrust of 

Japan's nuclear fuel cycle policy. However, after the 1995 fire at 

the prototype fast-breeder reactor Monju in Tsuruga, Fukui 

Prefecture, the government placed the pluthermal process at the 

center of the policy. 



The Japanese government is planning to introduce the pluthermal 

process in 16 to 18 reactors nationwide by 2010. 



The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, which comprises seven reactors, 

has an output of 8,212,000 kilowatts, the largest in the world. 



- ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Director, Technical                             Extension 2306                                  

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service         Fax:(714) 668-3149                                          

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.                       E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net                                                      

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue           E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com                       

Costa Mesa, CA 92626



Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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