2024-12-30

On 2018/8/6, an article by Yoshiko Sakurai published on the front page of the Nikkei Shimbun was an article that every Japanese citizen who can read print must read.
Every Japanese citizen who reads this article should bow their head when they realize that here stands a true patriot, moreover a woman and one of our seniors.
Emphasis in the text other than the headings is mine.
Is It Not Exactly Like the Naoto Kan Administration?
Amid extraordinary heat exceeding 41 degrees in some regions, the government in July approved at a Cabinet meeting the Fifth Strategic Energy Plan（the Fifth Plan）, looking ahead to 1030 and 2050.
The Japan-U.S. Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, which had reached the end of its 30-year term, was also automatically extended.
Against this background, the government’s Atomic Energy Commission announced in new guidelines that it would “reduce the amount of plutonium held,” and Chairman Yoshiaki Oka expressed concern about Japan’s current plutonium holdings of more than 47 tons.
This is an issue that is difficult for the public to understand, but in fact it is extremely important in determining whether Japan will be able to continue maintaining a stable supply of electricity, which is fundamental to a prosperous and secure life.
When we look at energy policy, something astonishing emerges.
The policies of the LDP-Komeito government overlap perfectly with those of the Naoto Kan administration of the former Democratic Party of Japan.
The LDP-Komeito government has inherited the Kan administration’s basic course in its entirety and has continued along it to this day.
The energy policy of the LDP-Komeito government, which is identical to the policy of the Kan administration—an anti-nuclear-power ideology itself that takes precedence over the national interest and the security of the people’s lives—has already collapsed.
The Fifth Plan itself, supposedly designed with our country’s future in mind, is impossible to realize.
The Fifth Plan declares that renewable energy from solar and wind power will be increased to 22–24 percent of all power sources by 2030 and made a principal source of electricity, while satisfying two requirements: becoming economically independent without government subsidies or preferential measures, and becoming a trump card for decarbonization.
At present, solar-generated electricity accounts for 4.4 percent of the total, and wind power 0.6 percent.
I believe renewable energy is important as a principal power source of the future and that Japan should devote itself to R&D（research and development）as one of the pillars of its national strategy.
However, in the near future, making fluctuating power sources such as solar and wind the principal sources of electricity is extremely difficult from the perspectives of meteorology and economics.
Will the outlook become clear in just a little more than ten years?
The opinions of experts are negative.
Renewable energy should probably be positioned as a goal for a more distant future.
On the other hand, nuclear power is a source of electricity that can be supplied immediately.
However, the Fifth Plan does not confront it directly.
It merely states that dependence on nuclear power will be reduced as much as possible while reactors will be restarted after safety has been enhanced, but what percentage of electricity generation does it actually intend to maintain from nuclear power?
The target of 20–22 percent that had been indicated at the draft stage was deleted.
Considering this together with the aforementioned policy of reducing plutonium holdings, Japan will inevitably be forced in the direction of becoming increasingly dependent on fossil fuels such as coal in order to compensate for unstable renewable energy.
In addition to establishing a system of 200 of the world’s most advanced nuclear power plants, China has announced that it will construct 200,000-kW small modular nuclear reactors（SMRs）at 143 locations in order to drastically reduce regional heat supply based on coal.
While China and the rest of the world press ahead with nation-building based on more advanced nuclear energy, is Japan alone going to fall completely behind?
Our country’s nuclear-energy policy is literally on the verge of being destroyed at its very foundation.
Japan imports uranium for nuclear-power fuel from the United States and other countries, processes uranium fuel used in reactors, and extracts plutonium from it.
The nuclear fuel cycle is the system in which this is reused in the prototype fast breeder reactor “Monju”（Fukui Prefecture）and in ordinary light-water reactors（pluthermal generation）, and Japan’s nuclear-power policy is built upon this foundation.
However, it was decided that Monju would be decommissioned.
To maintain the nuclear fuel cycle, only pluthermal generation remains.
Among the nuclear reactors that have been restarted, only four are capable of pluthermal generation.
Each reactor consumes 0.4 tons of plutonium annually.
If the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho Village, Aomori Prefecture, which is expected to be completed three years from now, begins operation, 8 tons of plutonium will be extracted annually through the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel.
As a result, in order to carry out the Atomic Energy Commission’s “pledge” to reduce the amount of plutonium held, arguments have arisen that spent nuclear fuel should not be reprocessed, or that reprocessing should be restricted.
The policy of the Atomic Energy Commission can be read as one that would sever Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle and drive the nuclear industry toward its end.
Does this not overlap perfectly with Mr. Kan’s scheme?
The public is made to bear the enormous cost of renewable energy, nuclear policy fails, Japan becomes excessively dependent on fossil fuels such as coal, and the country falls into becoming a major emitter of CO2.
Why is our country being driven down such a foolish path?
During the process leading to the automatic extension of the Japan-U.S. Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, information circulated both on the Japanese side and from the American side such as “Japan possesses 47 tons of plutonium,” “enough for approximately 6,000 atomic bombs,” and “the danger of nuclear proliferation.”
However, these claims are not accurate.
The 47 tons of plutonium held by Japan is reactor-grade plutonium, and it differs in composition from weapons-grade plutonium used for nuclear weapons and is also significantly lower in purity.
Of Japan’s plutonium, approximately 36 tons was reprocessed under contract in Britain and France and is stored in those two countries.
In addition, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency（IAEA）are permanently stationed at the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho Village, and Japan is under strict supervision.
It is scientifically and physically impossible for Japan to manufacture an atomic bomb.
There is no problem whatsoever with Japan’s possession of plutonium.
The only way to solve the problem is to put the reprocessing plant into operation and complete the nuclear fuel cycle.
Nevertheless, Japan as a whole shrank back in the face of inaccurate information, or information containing a particular purpose.
As soon as the Japan-U.S. Nuclear Cooperation Agreement was automatically extended, the media reported “concerns of the international community.”
NHK commentator Noriyuki Mizuno even criticized the situation by saying that “China and North Korea singled out Japan and pointed to the possibility of nuclear development”（August 1, “Jiron Koron”）.
The aim of such information is to force the reprocessing plant to be abandoned, collapse the nuclear fuel cycle, and bury Japan’s entire nuclear-energy industry.
The Abe administration, which bears responsibility for Japan’s energy policy, should recognize that Japan’s future is facing a crisis because of anti-nuclear-power information and should work to rebuild the country’s energy policy.