TL: Japan's Misguided Plutonium Program: A Greenpeace View SO: Ulrich Jurgens, Greenpeace International (GP) DT: January 10, 1993 Keywords: plutonium japan disarmament nuclear weapons proliferation risks power fareast greenpeace statements gp / Text of Speech by Director, Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaign 10 January 1993, Tokyo ---------------- Dear Friends and Colleagues, Dear Listeners from the Nuclear Industry, Dear Policemen, Dear Harrassment Team: I would like to thank you on behalf of Greenpeace for the opportunity to talk to you here today at this anti-plutonium rally. What is happening in Japan to stop the plutonium industry has global significance and we appreciate this opportunity to be here and strengthen ties with you. Greenpeace is an environmental and disarmament organisation with offices in 30 countries around the world and was originally founded in 1972 in protest against nuclear weapons testing. We have been campaigning against the nuclear industry and nuclear weapons since that time. On the nuclear front, our message is very brief and clear: no nukes, neither as nuclear reactors nor as nuclear weapons. One of our main principles is to bear witness against wrongs committed against the environment and to have respect for all life on earth. Under these circumstances we believe: - in non-violent direct action, and - in questioning the lack of openness and secrecy of governments and industries. We are proud to be part of the expanding Japanese and international coalition against insanity, arrogance, hypocracy and violence on the part of the nuclear industry and governments around the world. Our protest today is against the legalization of the utilization of plutonium and is directed towards the governments and the nuclear industries - particularly of the key players consisting of the USA, Canada, France, the UK and, of course, Japan. However, we should not forget to include also Belgium, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland in this unholy coalition of believers in one of the most destructive industries on earth. These countries all either already possess plutonium and own Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel manufacturing plants - such as Germany and Belgium - or want to start MOX fuel programs in the near future. An amount of around 80 tons of so-called civil Pu is mainly held in stores in Chelyabinsk in Russia, in Sellafield in the UK and in La Hague in France. In the United States, tens of tonnes of plutonium from dismantled nuclear weapons will be stored by the Department of Energy at the Pantex nuclear weapons assembly factory in Texas. As of the 5th of January, Japan is even more vigorously pursuing full membership in the plutonium club. The reason the world had been asked to accept the Japanese desire to also possess plutonium is the ultimate engineers' and physicists' dream of the 'perpetuum mobile' - the perpetual motion machine - the engine that generates more energy then it consumes. Japan's Fast Breeder Reactor in Monju is planned to go critical in October 1993 and the government just gave permission to begin the construction of Rokkasho, Japan's plutonium manufacturing plant, in March 1993. This, however, does not mean that Japanese technicians will actually succeed where others failed. In the course of the last two years Germany, France and the UK opted out of their fast breeder option - not because they are environmental saints but because the 'perpetual motion machine' perpetually consumed more money than it generated. The only winners in this business are the industrial corporations that constructed a technology which is not safe, which is not environmentally sound, which is not cheap and above all which does not even work. Japan still has this experience laying ahead. If it was only about money one shouldn't probably be bothered that much, although the tax payers in Japan might have a different idea of how their money should be spent. But it is about a deadly legacy for the future that will last several tens of thousands of years; it is about toxic nuclear waste. The nuclear industry already has the 'courtesy' to generate at least 30 to 40 tons of nuclear waste per year per reactor. Japan alone has a production of some 1500 tons of radioactive waste from its reactors per year. Nobody in this 'highly sophisticated' industry ever presented us with a solution about the final disposal of nuclear waste. But that is not a surprise, as there is no solution to this nightmare. At least a verbal solution was found: reprocessing. This word comes very close to 'recycling' but in reality it actually is the opposite. Reprocessing - or better the manufacturing of plutonium - does not reduce the volume of radioctive waste but multiplies the existing amount by the factor of approximately 190, according to a study recently commissioned by Greenpeace UK about the new Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) in Sellafield. To the Japanese taxpayers and energy consumers' 'delight' it might be worth mentioning that the generation of radioactive waste by the plutonium industry will consume a huge sum of money. The breeder project in Monju already swallowed 625 billion Yen. We do not know the construction and operating costs of Rokkasho but for comparison you might be interested to hear that the operation of THORP (the UK plutonium factory) for one decade under normal conditions will - according to BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Limited) - amount to a sum of approximately 1100 billion Yen. The transport of the 1.7 tons of plutonium alone already sums up to a cost to the Japanese of approximately 26 billion Yen. The beneficiaries in this whole deal are obvious, but YOU and the vast majority of Japanese are not among them. It will be you and your progeny who will bear the burden of the massive amounts of nuclear waste which will be left behind. Japanese industry and the names of its corporations such as Sony, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, etc. are known world wide for their high tech standards, electronic products and advanced machinery. We actually wonder how the foreign consumer would react if she or he would no longer identify Japanese high tech industry with computer and stereo equipment but rather with lethal and destructive nuclear and plutonium industries. If, for example, the overseas owner of a Mitsubishi or Hitachi product would know that with the purchase of that product financial support is given to the largest Japanese nuclear construction and supply companies, some buyers might hopefully stop purchasing any goods manufactured by Mitsubishi or Hitachi. It is understandable that Japan is worried by its dependency on energy imports. However, it is not tolerable that industry and government in Japan feel they have the right to ignore the interests of their own people and of the whole world in establishing its own plutonium economy. We rather believe that Japanese science and technology could serve the world with the large scale development and production of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. The dependency on ancient and highly dangerous technologies such as nuclear power does not represent any technical progress. The boiling of water in the most dangerous way ever known to humanity to drive a turbine which then generates electricity and loses approximately - from input to output - 70% of its energy is not high tech but an example of substandard engineering technology. We hope this is not what Japanese industry stands for. Does the world want to see Japanese armed ships sailing around the globe to protect Japanese merchant vessels and their cargo and in doing so violate the spirit of the Japanese peace constitution? Even the U.S. State Department was not able to tell us if this was a military or commercial operation. At what stage and under what right would they have decided to shoot at another vessel or aircraft and to deliberately kill people outside Japanese territory? Does Japan have the right to limit the freedom of the sea for international shipping? Is this the arrogance of money and power? Is this a divine right of the Japanese government? Despite worldwide opposition, the international nuclear industry still continues to work towards the first major nuclear shipping or airline desaster. The European continental states ship their nuclear waste on a roll on/roll off ferry to the UK and Germany even transported plutonium fuel elements of their fast breeder wreck in Kalkar to Scotland by aircraft. The so-called purpose- built ships of Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL, subsidiary of BNFL, and who also owns the Akatsuki Maru) do not provide more safety for normal shipping accidents then any other well maintained modern vessel. If it is 100% safe to transport plutonium there should not be any need for safety equipment or safety drills on board. If they are NOT 100% safe - who gives Japan, France, the US, and the UK the right to endanger the whole planet with their reckless behaviour? This unnecessary transport of plutonium is as much a rejection of life as is the manufacturing of plutonium. No wonder the captain of the Shikishima was relieved to be over with his dirty job. Plutonium is not only highly toxic and radioactive but it is also the stuff of dreams for all nuclear weapon makers. The plutonium which Japan has received can be used for nuclear weapons. The most difficult aspect for countries to make nuclear weapons is the difficulty in obtaining plutonium, as it has to be extracted from spent fuel or otherwise has to be 'bred' in breeder reactors. Officially all nuclear weapon states and the International Atomic Energy Agency are very concerned about proliferation, but in practice proliferation of plutonium is being encouraged. In the case of Japan, France, and Britain, they trade plutonium as if it were bananas or any other commodity. And it seems that the cry for a new cold war with new participants has already been heard. Trusting the old rule that money does not stink, BNFL, for example, is now negotiating with South Korea a reprocessing contract similar to the one it has with Japan. I would like to strongly emphasize that we feel that there is no inherent right of the nuclear weapons states to possess nuclear weapons while other states are not granted that right - we feel that all nuclear weapons must be banned and that Japan can play an important role in leading the world towards that end. The fear that Japan may one day produce nuclear weapons or that Japan may cause other nations in the region to acquire nuclear weapons is a valid fear. The half-life of plutonium is about 24000 years, yet the half-life of governments is only a tiny fraction of that length of time. Essentially, plutonium exists forever. There is reason enough to doubt that the Japanese government - or any other government - can guarantee that within the next 24000 years nobody will try to use Japanese plutonium to build a plutonium bomb. This counts for all 'plutonium states'. Given the dangers associated with plutonium, it is frightening to realize that the maximum plutonium supply for foreign countries having fuel reprocessed at Sellafield for the next decade includes Japan with 49 tonnes and Germany with 32 tonnes of plutonium. Although it would be hard to realistically believe that the present Japanese or German government wants to build a nuclear device, we all have to admit that we have knowledge about the past but not about the future. Even Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State, said in an interview with the Yomiuri on January 6 that he could not honestly say that Japan would not acquire nuclear weapons in the year 2000. 24000 years ago people lived in caves and could hardly light a fire. Only 50 years ago the world was happy that Japan and Germany did not possess a nuclear bomb. 35 years ago the German minister Strauss pushed for nuclear armament in Germany. 15 years ago the Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda stated that a decision on equipping the armed forces of the country with nuclear weapons could be adopted. Who is here to guarantee that some years from now Japan will not have a nuclear bomb? Who can guarantee that Germany within the future does not obtain a nuclear device? The present German government is not even able to keep a very small minority of new and old fascists and their violent and aggressive behaviour under control and Japan aggressively and arrogantly pushed it's transport of plutonium three-quaters around the globe. The hypocracy of the profit-making western nuclear industries and their helping handymen in governments allows for any kind of scenario in the future. We therefore call for a stop of plutonium production and in the end for a shut down of all nuclear reactors. We are also here today to present to you and the public an international declaration against plutonium which is until now signed by more than 125 famous people in 20 countries around the world, including such diverese personalities as Raul Alfonsin of Argentina, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Meryl Streep and Rigoberta Menchu. These artists, politicians, athletes and scientists should only be the first small number of people declaring their opposition to the plutonium economy. With the release of this declaration and with the announcement of its signatories we would like to call upon everyone here and around the world to renew their efforts to stop the plutonium economy. What we are all doing is a sign of hope against nuclear anniliation, nuclear pollution and environmental degradation and is pro-life in the truest sense of the word. Thank you very much for your hard work and the excellent co- operation. Those of us with Greenpeace look forward to working together with you in the future for the stop of production and use of plutonium. Arigato gozaimasita, sayonara. -----------