EDITORIAL: 'Pluthermal' program

The nation's first plutonium-thermal power generation finally got off the ground.

The so-called pluthermal program uses plutonium extracted from spent fuel at nuclear power plants, mixes it with uranium to produce plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel and burns it in conventional nuclear reactors to generate electricity.

Kyushu Electric Power Co. began using MOX fuel at the No. 3 reactor of the Genkai Nuclear Power Station in Saga Prefecture on Thursday. If everything goes as planned, commercial power generation will start in early December.

Next year, Shikoku Electric Power Co. and Chubu Electric Power Co. plan to start pluthermal programs at the Ikata Nuclear Power Station in Ehime Prefecture and the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in Shizuoka Prefecture, respectively.

The pluthermal program started 10 years behind schedule. The delay is partly attributed to public distrust toward nuclear energy projects, which were plagued with scandals and accidents. The cases included falsified data on imported MOX fuel by a British nuclear fuel company, cover-ups of problems at nuclear power plants operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co., and the fatal criticality accident at a fuel reprocessing facility run by JCO Co.

Growing public distrust made it difficult for residents of local communities that host nuclear power plants to accept the pluthermal program.

No serious trouble has occurred in foreign countries that started plutonium-thermal power generation in the 1960s. Still, Japan is a beginner in this field. Power companies must enhance safety measures to ensure they do not overlook even the slightest sign of trouble.

The government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, under which the pluthermal program started, should strengthen surveillance of nuclear power plants and enhance transparency of their operations as it re-examines traditional policies on atomic energy safety. Otherwise, public trust toward nuclear power generation will not take root.

Meanwhile, behind the pluthermal program is the need to reduce Japan's stockpile of plutonium.

Since plutonium can be used for nuclear weapons, an increase in stockpiles could invite suspicions about nuclear armament. Japan can reduce such anxieties by consuming the fissionable substance as MOX fuel.

Currently, the nation has 24 tons of plutonium in Britain and France, where it is being reprocessed, in addition to a domestic stockpile of slightly more than 4 tons. Using plutonium in the pluthermal program to decrease the stockpile is in line with the nation's international pledge not to possess surplus plutonium.

The electric power industry plans to expand pluthermal power generation at 16 to 18 nuclear reactors across the nation by fiscal 2015. If the plan materializes, about 6 tons of plutonium will be consumed a year, according to industry sources.

However, the start of the pluthermal program should not be regarded as the first step toward plutonium use.

Consumption of the plutonium stock through pluthermal power generation should be discussed separately from the policy to promote a full-fledged nuclear fuel cycle, in which reprocessing of spent fuel produces additional plutonium for use in fast-breeder reactors, the mainstay device for plutonium use.

Should plutonium be extracted from spent fuel and reused? Or should the use of nuclear fuel be limited to one time only and the spent fuel be disposed of without extracting plutonium?

If the Hatoyama government considers atomic energy as one of the mainstays of the nation's power supply, as preceding administrations had done, it must seek a public consensus on this issue.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 6(IHT/Asahi: November 7,2009)