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DESCRIPTION:10/11 SF Rally-Speak Out- Let's Stop Another Fukushima From Happening 
 Again!\nDefend the Children and Families From Fukushima\nTuesday October  
 11, 2016  3:00 PM\n275 Battery St./California St.\nSan Francisco\n\nJoin on 
 October 11, 2016 at 3:00 PM at the San Francisco Japanese Consulate to call 
 for the evacuation of all children and families in Fukushima and the 
 immediate halt of the restarting of Japan's nuclear plants. The Abe 
 government has told the Japanese people and the world including the Olympic 
 Committee that Fukushima has been "decontaminated" and that people can 
 overcome radiation. They are now telling Fukushima refugees that the must 
 return to contaminated Fukushima or there housing benefits will be shut 
 off.\nFor the children and families this is forcing them to make an 
 impossible situation that might put them in a contaminated environment. The 
 government is telling teachers at schools not to point out hotspots near 
 these schools and there are thousands of bags of contaminated material with 
 no place to go and still sits in Fukushima yet the government says it has 
 been "decontaminated".\nThe government and the utilities are now pushing to 
 relicense plants that are over 40 years of age. These plants are not 
 dangerous due to age but contain hundreds of thousands of used rods 
 containing dangerous amounts of nuclear waste.\nThe government also 
 continues to stockpile a large amount of plutonium that also is a threat to 
 health and safety and is connected to the efforts of the Japanese Abe 
 government to remilitarize and possibly build nuclear weapons and they need 
 plutonium to do this.\nWe cannot afford this continued restarting these 
 nuclear plants and must work to evacuate the families and children from 
 Fukushima.\n\nLET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD\n\nSpeak Out and Rally initiated 
 by\nNo Nukes Action 
 Committee\nhttp://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/\n\n\nAnother aging reactor 
 passes safety checks to operate beyond 40 yrs as Abe Government pushes to 
 restart nuclear 
 reactor\nhttp://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20161005/p2g/00m/0dm/074000c\nOctober 
 5, 2016 (Mainichi Japan)\n\n\nNo. 3 unit at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s 
 Mihama plant in Fukui Prefecture (Mainichi)\nTOKYO (Kyodo) -- Another aging 
 nuclear reactor in Japan passed a key safety assessment Wednesday as a step 
 toward going back on line, signaling a weakening of the force of a rule 
 introduced after the 2011 Fukushima disaster to limit reactors' operations 
 to 40 years in principle.\n\n	• 【Related】Editorial: Japan should 
 phase out aging nuclear reactors\n	• 【Related】40-year rule for 
 Japan's nuclear reactors sidelined as Mihama unit passes screening\n	• 
 【Related】NRA's Takahama reactor approval a blow to 40-year lifespan 
 rule\nThe No. 3 unit at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Mihama plant in Fukui 
 Prefecture is the latest reactor seeking to continue in service beyond the 
 40-year limit to pass the screening, after two such units at the utility's 
 Takahama complex, also in Fukui.\n\nThe No. 3 unit went offline in May 2011 
 for a regular checkup and has not been restarted since due to inspections 
 to meet tougher safety requirements introduced after the Fukushima 
 disaster.\n\nBut hurdles remain before the Mihama reactor can restart. It 
 will have to obtain further permission from the Nuclear Regulation 
 Authority on details of equipment design and other issues by the end of 
 November, when it will reach 40 years since entering service.\n\nMissing 
 the deadline would require the utility to scrap the reactor.\n\nEven if the 
 deadline is not missed, resumption of the reactor is not expected before 
 the spring of 2020 to allow time for the operator to finish preparing all 
 the required safety measures, according to Kansai Electric.\n\nKansai 
 Electric plans to spend about 165 billion yen ($1.6 billion) to upgrade the 
 facilities to meet the new regulations, which reflect the lessons learned 
 from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster.\n\nThe 40-year 
 operational limit has been included in the regulations with the aim of 
 encouraging the retirement of aging reactors that could be prone to 
 accidents.\n\nAlthough operation for an additional 20 years is possible, 
 nuclear regulators initially indicated that it would be extremely difficult 
 to actually get approval for an extension.\n\nSome utilities have decided 
 to scrap their aging reactors due to expensive safety costs. Kansai 
 Electric has also given up restarting the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors of the 
 three-unit Mihama plant.\n\nBut the 40-year-old limit has come to look as 
 if it lacks teeth because utilities are still seeking extensions where they 
 see it as economically viable, with nuclear regulators acknowledging that 
 technical issues could be overcome with sufficient investment.\n\nHow does 
 Japan justify keeping such a huge stock of 
 plutonium?\nhttp://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/762302.html\nPosted 
 on : Sep.22,2016 17:38 KSTModified on : Sep.22,2016 17:38 KST\n\n\nThe 
 Monju fast-breeder reactor, part of the Tsuruga Nuclear Power Plant in 
 Japan\nJapan had 47.8 tons of plutonium as of the end of 2015, and this 
 week decided to close the Monju fast-breeder reactor \nJapan‘s decision 
 on Sep. 21 to shut down its Monju fast-breeder reactor, which had served as 
 a pretext for holding plutonium, is expected to create more controversy in 
 East Asia, which is already embroiled with conflict because of North 
 Korea’s nuclear program. Another question is how Japan will manage to 
 retain its supply of plutonium after closing the Monju reactor.\nAccording 
 to a document that was made public by the Japanese Cabinet Office in July, 
 Japan held 47.8 tons of plutonium as of the end of 2015. Since 8 kg of 
 plutonium is needed to manufacture a single nuclear warhead, that’s 
 enough plutonium to make 6,000 warheads. Considering that the whole world 
 was horrified to learn that North Korea is extracting plutonium from its 5 
 megawatt graphite-moderated reactor in Yongbyon, it is difficult to 
 understand this double standard.\nJapan’s justification for this has been 
 its plan for a “nuclear fuel cycle” that it has pursued for several 
 decades. Japan’s argument has been that, while it does possess a huge 
 amount of plutonium, its purpose is to peacefully burn it in fast-breeder 
 reactors, not to create nuclear weapons as North Korea is 
 doing.\nResponding to criticism from the international community about its 
 plutonium stockpile, Japan has maintained that it will not store plutonium 
 that it does not intend to use. In apparent recognition of the awkwardness 
 of this situation, the Japanese government reconfirmed its plans to 
 continue executing its nuclear fuel cycle plan, even after it shuts down 
 the Monju reactor.\nWhile Japan is not one of the nuclear power states 
 recognized by the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it is regarded as being 
 capable of making nuclear weapons at any time. Evidence for this argument 
 includes Japan’s huge stockpile of plutonium and its advanced rocket 
 launch capability, including the H-IIA, which boasts a stable launch ratio 
 of more than 95%. Japan has indirectly indicated that it does not intend to 
 give up the plutonium that it has gone to such efforts to make and to store 
 as a safety precaution against the rise of China, the threat of North 
 Korea‘s nuclear weapons and the reckless calls for nuclear armament from 
 the South Korean right wing.\nIndeed, discussion inside the Japanese 
 government aimed at finding an alternative to Monju has reached some degree 
 of progress. During a meeting of cabinet members connected with nuclear 
 power that was convened at the Prime Minister’s residence on Sep. 21, the 
 Japanese government decided to create a “fast reactor development 
 committee” led by Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko 
 and to confirm plans to develop new fast reactors.\nThe Yomiuri Shimbun and 
 other Japanese newspapers reported that Japan would deal with this issue by 
 participating in the development of the ASTRID fast reactor, which France 
 hopes to begin operating in 2030. Separately from this, Japan has a 
 “plu-thermal” plan in the works that would involve burning MOX fuel 
 (made from a mixture of plutonium and uranium) in regular nuclear 
 reactors.\nThe biggest pending question is whether the US will extend its 
 nuclear agreement with Japan when it expires in July 2018. After six years 
 of heated negotiations in the 1980s, Japan was able to secure sweeping 
 prior approval from the US for nuclear activity including the reprocessing 
 of spent nuclear fuel.\nJapanese newspaper the Mainichi Shimbun voiced 
 concerns that, unless there is progress on the fast reactor development 
 plan or the “plu-thermal” plan, the US will put the brakes on automatic 
 extension of the agreement (which is valid for 30 years). After North 
 Korea‘s third nuclear test in Feb. 2013, the South Korean government also 
 asked the US for the kind of reprocessing authority that Japan has, but 
 this request was ultimately denied. Japan is the only non-nuclear power 
 state to which the US has granted reprocessing authority.\nThe final 
 variable is the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, on which construction is 
 supposed to conclude in the first half of 2019. When operations begin at 
 this facility, it will enable Japan to acquire 8 additional tons of 
 plutonium each year. This would mean the mass production of even more 
 “useless” plutonium in a situation where Japan is already being viewed 
 askance by the international community.\nBy Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo 
 correspondent\n\nUS expresses deep concern over plutonium reprocessing 
 program in 
 Japan\nhttp://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/632615.html\nPosted 
 on : Apr.14,2014 16:28 KSTModified on : Apr.14,2014 16:28 
 KST\n\n\nJapan’s Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, which is scheduled to be 
 completed in October.\nConcern expressed over accumulation of spent nuclear 
 fuel with no plan for consumption \nBy Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent 
 \nThe US is deeply concerned about Japan’s Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, 
 which extracts plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, reports say. When the 
 facility, which is scheduled to be completed in October, comes online, the 
 US will run out of reasons to reject South Korean demands to reprocess 
 spent fuel in the same way as Japan. Not only that, but increasing supplies 
 of plutonium that lack a clear purpose run counter to the US government’s 
 principle of blocking nuclear proliferation.\nAs part of a joint 
 investigation with the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), an American 
 non-profit journalistic organization, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Apr. 13 
 that Thomas M. Countryman, US Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of 
 International Security and Nonproliferation, and Daniel Bruce Poneman, US 
 Deputy Secretary of Energy, expressed their serious concern about the 
 factory in Rokkasho to Tatsujiro Suzuki, vice chairman of the Japan Atomic 
 Energy Commission (JAEC), when he visited the US in Apr. 2013.\nThe 
 facility, which is located in the village of Rokkasho in Aomori Prefecture 
 at the north end of the main Japanese island of Honshu, will be capable of 
 processing 800 tons of spent nuclear fuel into 8 tons of plutonium per 
 year.\nAccording to the report, Countryman said that operations at the 
 Rokkasho plant could become a major concern, mentioning the Iran nuclear 
 program and its ramifications on US-South Korea nuclear cooperation. “If 
 Japan begins operations at the Rokkasho factory before it brings online the 
 fast breeder reactors that can process this plutonium, these two issues 
 could put the US in an awkward position,” Countryman said. \nPoneman 
 expressed the US’s concern about Japan having more stocks of plutonium 
 from reprocessing spent nuclear fuel without a plan for consumption. \nThe 
 reason the plant is drawing global attention is because bringing the 
 factory online would let Japan increase its supply of plutonium, a fuel 
 that can be used to make nuclear weapons. Japan already has 44.2 tons of 
 plutonium, enough to make several thousand nuclear weapons. \nJapan claims 
 that it will use the plutonium for peaceful ends in the fast breeder 
 reactors that it is currently developing. However, these development plans 
 have basically run into a dead end, as can be seen in the continuing 
 failure of test operations at the Monju Nuclear Power Plant, a prototype 
 plant. The same is true of the “pluthermal” plan, which involves mixing 
 plutonium and uranium fuel and using it in standard nuclear 
 reactors.\nDespite these circumstances, the administration of Shinzo Abe 
 gave final approval through a decision by the cabinet on Apr. 11 to a basic 
 energy plan that includes instructions to move forward with construction of 
 the Rokkasho processing facility. The plan does give a nod to the US with a 
 section about giving ample consideration to the balance between the 
 recovery and use of plutonium. However, given that Japan currently has 
 17,315 tons of spent nuclear fuel, twenty years of processing the fuel 
 could give it an additional 160 tons of plutonium.\n“I was disappointed 
 that Japan and everything they’ve gone through in the last three years 
 hasn’t fundamentally re-evaluated their need for this material,” said 
 Jon Brook Wolfsthal, current Deputy Director of the James Martin Center for 
 Nonproliferation Studies and director of nonproliferation for the National 
 Security Council at the White House from 2009 to 2012. “I think it would 
 be better, personally, if Japan did not have a MOX (mixed oxide fuel) 
 program and operate Rokkasho.”\nBut there is no chance that Japan would 
 suspend operations at the facility even if the US asked it to, and the US 
 is unable to address the issue outright out of concern that relations 
 between the two countries would deteriorate.\nNevertheless, if Japan’s 
 supply of “suspicious” plutonium continues to grow, this could have a 
 considerable impact on negotiations to extend the US-Japan nuclear treaty, 
 which grants Japan the right to reprocess spent fuel. The treaty is set to 
 expire in July 2018.\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/10/09/18792077.php
SUMMARY:SF Rally-Speak Out- Let's Stop Another Fukushima From Happening Again!
LOCATION:Japanese Consulate\n275 Battery St./California St.\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/10/09/18792077.php
DTSTART:20161011T220000Z
DTEND:20161011T230000Z
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