Protests as Japan plutonium reactor goes critical

TOKYO (Reuter): Demonstrators took to the sea and beach yesterday as Japan's prototype fast breeder reactor (FBR) "went critical" and began a self-sustaining nuclear reaction.

Several hundred protesters, including a Greenpeace boat, gathered near the reactor in Tsuruga, on the Japan Sea coast, saying the 600 billion yen (US$5.45 billion) reactor is dangerous and expensive, and that Japan should abandon it.

"Looking at it from an economic, safety or energy-use point of view, it is not a smart idea," said Jinzaburo Takagi, head of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center, on NHK television.

Japan is developing fast breeders because of their potential to squeeze about 60 times the energy from uranium fuel as conventional light-water reactors (LWRs).

They burn a refined version of the plutonium given off as a by-product in LWRs, and also breed more plutonium.

This means they could reduce vastly the nation's dependence on energy imports to power its manufacturing economy.

"Japan is very poor in natural resources and we have to use technology to overcome this," said Science and Technology Agency director-general Satsuki Eda, defending the project. "We have to look at the distant future, at the 21st and even the 22nd century, and think of the economics in these terms."

The core reaction reached "criticality" yesterday, meaning it is self-sustaining: the neutrons produced in the fission process became sufficient to cause further reactions without artificial stimulus.

The 280,000-kilowatt prototype reactor, named "Monju" after a Buddhist deity, will undergo further tests in this chain reaction stage before turbines are connected in April next year. Full operation is scheduled for the end of 1995.

If that is deemed successful it will be followed by a demonstration reactor, construction of which will probably begin in the first decade of the next century. Officials now expect a commercial reactor to follow in around 2030.

The difficulty and expense of the reactors has led other nations to abandon their FBR projects at various stages, and Japan is now on its own in pursuing the technology.

Britain's prototype reactor was due to shut down last week with no further generation scheduled. France put its program on hold in 1990 after a fire at its demonstration reactor, which it will now use for nuclear waste research.

In addition to the expense and the danger of an accident at the plant, opponents of the project say it will contribute to plutonium proliferation. Unlike the fuel in conventional reactors, reactor-grade plutonium could, if it fell into the wrong hands, be used to make a crude nuclear bomb.

"At a time when the dangers of plutonium are becoming highlighted throughout the world, we shouldn't be breeding it, we should be getting rid of it," said Monju opponent Takagi.

"It's time for a rethink."

North Korea regularly accuses Japan of using FBRs as a front for weapons development and claims the West is being hypocritical in ignoring this while demanding that Pyongyang submit to U.N. inspections.

Other Asian governments too are said to be quietly worried about Japan's intentions.

"It's important to make it clear that we are doing this for peaceful purposes and to make the program transparent," said Hiroshi Kumagai, Minister for International Trade and Industry.

"Japan should use international inspections to get rid of anxieties over the program abroad."