Antinuclear

Japan’s secrecy, and moves towards nuclear weapons

There is little comfort in knowing that the walls of secrecy Japan has been putting up around Fukushima and other nuclear power activities will surely make it harder to know what if any weapons programs the country undertakes

Nuclear Japan? Op Ed News, 17 Jan 14 By William Boardman    (about the author) American nuclear officials are wary of Japan’s new nuclear push Official Japanese policy on nuclear power has swung full circle since the Fukushima disaster of 2011 — from avidly pro-nuclear power then, to rejecting nuclear power as too dangerous, and now back to avidly pushing on to re-start old reactors and build new ones. Adding the chronic secrecy and denial of the nuclear industry to such politically-driven indecision making, Japan has created a funhouse of distorting mirrors from which emerging information about the on-going Fukushima disaster cannot be considered credible without reliable, independent verification. Reliable and credible information about Fukushima is just what authorities in Japan and around the world apparently do not want. ……

Prime Minister Abe has moved aggressively to expand Japan’s reliance on nuclear power, even though the country has no nuclear waste repository and already has more than 14,000 tons of spent fuel in cooling pools at 50 nuclear plants around the country. During a visit to Japan in early December 2013, the head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Allison Macfarlane , cautioned Japan about nuclear expansion as long as there’s no place in the world to store nuclear waste safely.

Setting the stage for nuclear expansion, the prime minister in March 2013 had purged the membership of Japan’s nuclear advisory panel of all but two of its anti-nuclear members who had supported Japan’s non-nuclear energy policies. He reduced the 25 member panel to 15, of whom 13 are avidly pro-nuclear (some with bald conflicts of interest). The man chosen to head the panel, Akio Mimura , is an advisor to a company involved in nuclear construction, and he is the same man who headed a similar panel that shaped the policies that preceded the Fukushima meltdowns. Since then, all of Japan’s nuclear reactors have been shut down. The prime minister ispushing to re-start them as soon as possible despite polling last fall showing 60% of the population in favor of a zero-nuclear proposal .

Could Fukushima Fallout Lead Japan to Nuclear Weapons? 

Adding an unsettling edge to Japan’s pro-nuclear policy, Prime Minister Abe has foreshadowed a growing Japanese militarism that has drawn outspoken disapproval from both South Korea and China……..Further adding to the wariness of Japan’s neighboring countries presumably is Prime Minister Abe’s expand the Japanese military to allow Japan to defend itself. Japan’s large stockpile of Plutonium (44 tons, enough for more than 6,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs), puts Japan much closer to having nuclear weapons than Iran and most other non-nuclear nations. …….

There is little comfort in knowing that the walls of secrecy Japan has been putting up around Fukushima and other nuclear power activities will surely make it harder to know what if any weapons programs the country undertakes. And there is even less comfort in knowing that no international body, no government, no non-governmental nuclear regulator is raising any active, public challenge to Japanese nuclear secrecy, civilian or military.http://www.opednews.com/articles/Nuclear-Japan-by-William-Boardman-Denial_Nuclear-Cover-up_Nuclear-Energy-Plants_Nuclear-Fission-140117-722.html

January 18, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized