TOKYO, Feb. 10, 2023—The Japanese government Feb. 10, 2023 adopted a policy to develop fast nuclear power reactors as a part of what it calls green transformation to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions and secure stable energy sources. The decision means Japan would enrich spent nuclear fuels into uranium and plutonium for reuse – but it also would mean the enriched fuels can be used as nuclear bombs to be installed on missiles.
The cabinet of prime minister Fumio Kishida would immediately submit legislation for omnibus amendment of relevant laws and ordinances, most notably the Electricity Business Law and the Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law.
The policy entails authorizing the construction and operation of next-generation fast reactors on nuclear power stations where the government had decided to decommission the reactors earlier partly in response to the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear power meltdown. The policy also allows electric power companies to continue operating nuclear power reactors beyond the current legal duration of 60 years.
The Kishida cabinet on Feb. 10, 2023 also affirmed that the government will foot responsibility for final disposal of high radiation level nuclear waste, which amounts to empowering the government to force local governments to accept the localities as final disposal sites, however toxic the waste.
Building fast nuclear reactors, which the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry is experimenting in the United States with General Electric, is expected to take several years or even longer – which is fine for the ministry whose existential lifeline has been nuclear power and eventually the development of nuclear weapons, not renewable energy technologies as the policy is called, GX green transformation.
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