I have blogged extensively about the problems of permanent disposal of nuclear waste in the United States. The U.S. is not the only nation that has no permanent nuclear waste disposal facility. Many other nations are struggling with the question of where they can safely store the nuclear waste being generated by nuclear power reactors . Today I am going to talk about Japan.

         Most of the recent press about Japan’s nuclear program have been focused on the disaster and cleanup at Fukushima. All of the fifty Japanese power reactors were shut down following the disaster in March of 2011. Only two have been restarted as questions of the safety of the remaining nuclear power reactors are carefully reviewed.

          The Tokai nuclear power plant in Ibaraki Prefecture began operating in 1966. It was the first commercial power reactor in Japan. The Tokai reactor has reached the end of its lifespan and was slated for decommissioning in 2006. The cost of the process was estimated to be about nine hundred million U.S. dollars. It was to begin in 2011 and take six years. The only problem is that there is no place to dispose of the sixteen hundred tons of low level waste that must be buried one hundred fifty to three hundred feet below ground to be safe. It is now 2013 and work on decommissioning has not started yet.

          The Japanese government is considering a disposal site in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture where a uranium reprocessing plant is being built by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd, (JNFL) a consortium of Japanese power utilities. It is the intent of the Japanese government to reprocess all spent nuclear fuel in the Rokkasho plant to obtain additional fuel and reduce the radioactivity of the remaining waste. However, there have been problems and accidents that have delayed the completion of the Rokkasho uranium reprocessing facility.

          JNFL started research in 2002 on disposal of nuclear waste from decommissioning. They built a test facility about three hundred feet underground at the Rokkasho site. Their research on storage was eventually turned over to the Radioactive Waste Management Funding and Research Center which is affiliated with the nuclear industry in Japan. Unfortunately, the authorities of the village of Rokkasho and the Aomori Prefecture have stated that they have no intention of accepting any new nuclear waste at the JNFL site.

         The Japanese government has estimated that over fifty thousand tons of nuclear waste will be generated by decommissioning by 2030. The Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority has not set standards for permanent disposal of nuclear wastes and the Japanese government has not yet selected a site for a permanent geological repository for nuclear waste disposal. The national government put out a call in 2002 for any municipality that would accept a permanent nuclear waste disposal facility. Only one city answer the request but soon withdrew its willingness to accept such a facility.

         As in the United States, the spent fuel pools in Japan are rapidly filling up and many will be filled completely within a few years. There are calls for the creation of interim nuclear waste storage onsite at nuclear power plants. The municipalities near the nuclear power plants have expressed their reluctance to see such interim facilities built.

         The nuclear waste situation is part of the heated debate over the future of nuclear power in Japan. Prime Minister Abe is pushing to restart all the reactors and to export Japanese nuclear technology to other countries. In fact, Japan has offered to dispose of nuclear waste generated by nuclear reactors that Japan builds in developing nations. This push is countered by former Prime Minister Koizumi who is calling for a permanent shut down of all nuclear plants because of the accident at Fukushima and the lack of permanent nuclear waste disposal in Japan. He is also against making nuclear technology exports a major part of future Japanese economic growth.

Rokkasho uranium reprocessing plant:

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TEPCO says that plutonium in Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel can be leaking out from holes and cracks in the fuel rods. enenews.com

Nuclear engineer says that every expert he talked to this week is very concerned about a criticality event during fuel removal at Fukushima Unit 4. enenews.com

ABC NEWS says that the U.S. West Coast may have to be evacuated when Fukishima radiation moving across the Pacific Ocean arrives. youtube.com

The total economic impact of the nuclear industry in North and South Carolina has been estimated to exceed at least $20 billion per year in a detailed study carried out by a team at Clemson University. world-nuclear-news.org

           I have blogged in the past about the Nuclear Waste Fund. A law was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1980 to have operators of nuclear reactors make annual payments into a fund that would be used to create a permanent geological repository for nuclear wastes in the U.S. by 1999. In 1987, Yucca Mountain in Nevada was designated as the potential site for the national repository. A great deal of research and development was put into creating such a repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. In 2002, three years after the repository was supposed to be open for waste disposal, Congress official stated that Yucca Mountain would be the site. The project continued under heavy criticism for not addressing some potential environmental problems. Harry Reid, a Democratic Senator from Nevada and the current Senate Majority leader has strongly opposed the Yucca Mountain Repository. Presidential Candidate Obama campaigned against the repository in the 2008 presidential election. In 2011, the Obama administration ended funding for the Yucca Mountain repository.

            There is around thirty billion dollars in the repository fund now. Nuclear plant operators have been suing the Federal government in an attempt to recover some of the money in the fund and/or to have the mandatory fund collection halted because of the missed 1999 deadline and the fact that there will be no permanent repository until 2040 at the earliest. There is also a push to have the repository funds made available for dry cask storage at nuclear plants. The nuclear waste situation in the U.S. is getting desperate. It is estimated that all the spent fuel pools at all the nuclear plants will be full by 2017. Spent nuclear fuel assemblies can be stored in dry casks on or off site. Unfortunately, as the law for the repository fund is written, none of the fund can be spent on building dry storage casks.

           A few days ago, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the mandatory fund collection of about seven hundred and fifty million dollar a year had to stop. The court said that since the Yucca Mountain repository project had been cancelled and there was currently no viable alternative project for permanent storage of nuclear waste in the U.S., there was no justification for the continued payments. The nuclear power industry said that this was a “win” for the consumers because they would no longer have to support the repository fund with higher prices for nuclear power.

           I think that this is very bad decision. The U.S. is going to have to find a solution to permanent nuclear waste storage. One thing I can guarantee is that the cost for any future repository will continue to climb until it is completed. The thirty billion currently in the fund will not cover the eventual cost. As far as the U.S. public not having to pay now for permanent disposal only means that they will have to pay more when a final solution is found for the disposal of nuclear waste.

Proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository design.

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Fukushima radiation release estimates have been compiled. fukuleaks.org

A documentary film that exposes the effect of Japan nuclear technology on a small village in Vietnam will be shown at this year’s Fukuoka Asian Film Festival. nuclearexportcontrols.blogspot.co.uk

Next month the California Public Utility Commission will consider the first of what will likely be multiple customer refunds related to the closure of the San Onofre nuclear plant. nuclearstreet.com

Thousands of people protested in Tokyo on Thursday against a proposed secrets act that critics say would stifle information on issues such as the Fukushima nuclear crisis. ca.news.yahoo.com

Today I am going to catch up on several news stories about the Iran nuclear program. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have imposed harsh trade sanctions to try to get Iran to stop enriching uranium. They fear that Iran is working on developing nuclear weapons. While the U.S. and other major powers are trying to cut a temporary deal with Iran, Israel is lobbying for even more severe sanctions and threatening to take unilateral military action to stop Iran. Saudi Arabia may obtain nuclear weapons from Pakistan if the Iranians do develop a nuclear bomb.

Recently a dissident group named the National Council of Resistance of Iran claimed that Iran has added another nuclear site to its program. They demand that U.N. inspectors be granted immediate access to the new undeclared site. The new site is supposed to be in an eighteen hundred foot tunnel complex at a military site beneath a mountain near the town of Mobarekeh. The dissidents say that Iran is creating a secret parallel nuclear program in addition to its publicly identified nuclear research sites. The U.N. fears that such a complex may contain thousands of centrifuges dedicated to the enrichment of uranium to the point where it could be used in a bomb. The U.N. Security Council is demanding access to any additional undeclared nuclear research sites.

Israel is frustrated by the failure of the U.S. and other nations to take a harder line against Iran over its nuclear program. The Israeli Prime Minister says that the “temporary” deal being discussed with Iran would not stop their nuclear program and would just give them more time to develop nuclear weapons as they stall during negotiation for a final deal to shut down their nuclear program. The Prime Minister is going to go to Moscow to try to get more support from the Kremlin for stricter trade sanctions against Iran. He says that the interim deal being discussed will not deprive Iran of its centrifuges for enriching uranium and that any temporary halt to enrichment activities can be reversed in weeks. The Prime Minister hopes that he can persuade Russia to support removal of Iran’s centrifuges. Russia has a strong relationship with Iran and has provided technical assistance for Iran’s nuclear program.

France, one of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, is upset with recent remarks about Israel attributed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader. In a speech before a paramilitary group, Khamenei said that he supports the negotiations but that Iran will not give up its “nuclear rights” which critics of the regime say are a reference to the right of Iran to enrich uranium. Iran is a signatory of international treaties that allow members to enrich uranium for peaceful nuclear power programs. The Supreme Leader referred to Israel as the “rabid dog” of the Middle East which is trying to “torpedo” the negotiations. He also said that Israel’s leaders were “not worthy to be called human.” France said that the comments were not helpful and that they would make negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program more difficult.

The international community’s attempt to restrain Iran’s potential development of nuclear weapons is causing a lot of acrimony between old allies and cooperation between old enemies. The situation is very complicated and potentially very dangerous. As I have said before, if Israel decides to strike Iran, it could lead to a wider war.

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Tokyo Electric Power Co. has finally moved into the decommissioning process at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, despite doubt over its ability to manage a highly dangerous effort that will take decades. japantimes.co.jp

Fukushima reactor designer say that he doubts that the Fukushima plant can be decommissioned and that maybe it should be enclosed in cement. enenews.com

Attitudes of the workers and military command in US nuclear force differ. washingtonpost.com

Taiwan should update the assessment of all natural hazards that could affect its nuclear power plants, notably for earthquakes and tsunamis, the European Commission (EC) has recommended. world-nuclear-news.org

Ambient office = 67 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Bartlett pear from Top Foods =  117 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Filtered water = 70 nanosieverts per hour

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