Subject: [cwj 156] Japan's TEPCO to postpone plan to use MOX fuel
From: Corporate Watch in Japanese <cwj@corpwatch.org>
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 15:12:08 -0700
Seq: 156
Friday, June 1 6:02 PM SGT Japan's TEPCO to postpone plan to use MOX fuel TOKYO, June 1 (AFP) - Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said Friday it will postpone its plan to use recycled nuclear fuel at its nuclear plant in northern Japan in line with a request from local authorities. "We have received a request from Niigata prefectural governor (Ikuo) Hirayama today to postpone introducing MOX fuel in the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant during the current regular inspection," TEPCO said in a statement. "Because of this request, the company decided to postpone the adoption of MOX fuel," it said, without specifying how long the postponement would last. Hirayama telephoned TEPCO earlier Friday following a vote Sunday by residents who came out against the use of plutonium-uranium mixed oxidefuel at the plant. Local leaders agreed that the "introduction of MOX during the current regular (reactor) inspection is impossible," because of the villagers' objections, said Kashiwazaki city's nuclear safety countermeasure officer Masaki Wakayama. The next scheduled opportunity to convert one of the plant's reactors to MOX will not be until August 2002, according to TEPCO. The plebiscite result dealt a blow to the nation's future nuclear energy policy, as TEPCO and the government acknowledged it would be hard to press ahead with the project without gaining local people's understanding. "Looking at the residents' vote result, the people's understanding is still not enough," Wakayama said. The proposal was rejected by a majority of 53.6 percent. TEPCO insisted however the plan still needed to be carried through. "The execution of the pluthermal plan is an urgent issue for our country which lacks (natural) resources, and its necessity has never changed in the smallest degree," it said. The local authorities from prefectural to Kariwa village level reached an accord with Tokyo in April 1999 allowing the MOX plan to go ahead, Wakayama said, explaining why a postponement rather than cancellation of the project was being sought. "By law it is impossible for the agreement in the past to be withdrawn," Wakayama said. The accord between the central and local governments includes conditions for the project to proceed, such as ensuring safety, and Tokyo's active role in gaining nationwide acceptance as well as local people's understanding. After Sunday's vote, the government and TEPCO vowed to step up efforts try to persuade the public of the need for nuclear power. The use of MOX fuel has been the lynchpin of Japan's nuclear policy since a fire at the nation's prototype 'Monju' fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, in December 1995. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Corporate Watch in Japanese is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability, human rights, economic democracy and social justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. ------------------------------------- Corporate Watch in Japanese Transnational Resource and Action Center (TRAC) P.O. Box 29344 San Francisco, CA 94129 USA Tel: 1-415-561-6472 Fax: 1-415-561-6493 Email: cwj@corpwatch.org URL: http://www.corpwatch-jp.org ------------------------------------- ______________________ The Corporate Watch in Japanese http://www.corpwatch.org/japan (CWJ) mailing list is a moderated email list in English designed to connect activists campaigning against Japanese corporations and investments around the world. * To unsubscribe from the CWJ mailing list, send an email to majordomo@jca.apc.org with text "unsubscribe cwj". To subscribe to the CWJ mailing list, send a message to majordomo@jca.apc.org with the text "subscribe cwj" * The CWJ mailing list is NOT intended for wide distribution. If you would like to post messages from this list somewhere else, we ask that you first contact us at cwj@corpwatch.org ______________________