OPINION: Japan's reprocessing program and proliferation in East Asia

By Masa Takubo and Frank von Hippel
PRINCETON/TOKYO, June 27, Kyodo

If the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant operates as designed for 40 years, it will separate more plutonium than the Soviet Union and the United States together produced for nuclear weapons during their Cold War. If other countries follow Japan's example, the risk of nuclear-weapon proliferation will increase.

Japanese government officials and other reprocessing proponents argue, however, that since Japan is the only non-weapon state allowed to separate plutonium it should not give up this hard-won right and that, if Japan reprocessed the spent fuel of other countries in the region, the danger of proliferation would be reduced.

It is true that, in 1988, the United States gave its "prior consent" for Japan to reprocess spent fuel that had U.S. content or had been irradiated in U.S.-designed reactors, but it gave the European Union and Switzerland the same approval.

Also, Belgium, Germany and Italy had pilot reprocessing plants like Japan. Because of the failure of plutonium breeder reactor programs, however, these countries decided to stop plutonium separation.

Today, only Japan and four weapon states -- China, France, India and Russia -- continue to insist on reprocessing. The U.S. gave up commercial reprocessing permanently in 1982 and recently, Britain too finally decided to abandon reprocessing.
[link to english.kyodonews.jp]
.