Article

2005-05-31 China-Japan-Koreas

Japan's Top Court Gives OK To Reopen Monju Fast Breeder Reactor

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Posted by Spavirt Pheng6042 2005-05-31 02:26|| E-Mail|| Front Page|| [11129 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Should be filed under Signs and Portents (N. Korea Division)? Go for it Japan! I've never heard of "fast breeders," but if it makes more plutonium than it consumes...go for it! And, what's with the bias on that country's WORST nuclear accident killing only 4 people (who were workers, at that). While I grieve for those workers, that, my friend, is no bad accident (in the nuclear world). Heck, here in the red state of Georgia, we had 34 people killed this weekend alone (Memorial Day weekend) in car accidents! That's it...let's ban cars!

Posted by BA">BA 2005-05-31 08:43|| 2005-05-31 08:43|| Front Page Top

#2 Call me pessimistic, but isn't this exactly the sort of thing than always ends with Tokyo being stomped flat by giant rubber monsters?

On the other hand, it *will* piss off the Chinese.

Posted by SteveS 2005-05-31 09:28|| 2005-05-31 09:28|| Front Page Top

#3 The six billion-dollar, 280,000-kilowatt "fast-breeder" reactor designed to produce more plutonium than it consumes has been emblematic for Japan, which relies heavily on nuclear energy due to its lack of natural resources.

Hmm is this the Japaneese way of telling the Chineese to get off their back and chill or China will wake up one morning at the end of the fuel cycle to find out Japan joined the nuclear club and can now match the Chineese MADD style deturence.

One thing I like about the new US policy unlike the old one when facing Soviet Union in Europe we are now not letting our allies get off with making us carry all of our water and thiers to the fight. We are pushing Japan and others to stand up themselves to the Chineese not just go socialist and complain while the whole time expecting full well the US military to come to the rescue.

Posted by C-Low 2005-05-31 11:50|| 2005-05-31 11:50|| Front Page Top

#4 Japan already has tons of plutonium. Their newly opened reprocessing plant can produce enough plutonium for 1000 bombs per year.

If they went nuclear, with their scientific and industrial base, they could easily be the second most powerful nuclear power in a few years.
China could never match them.

Also, the Japanese Navy far outclasses other asian powers. It has more frigates than the Royal Navy and some flat tops the Japanese insist on calling cruisers. They are in fact small aircraft carriers, able to take Harriers or JSFs.

Posted by john 2005-05-31 15:59|| 2005-05-31 15:59|| Front Page Top

#5 and some flat tops the Japanese insist on calling cruisers

? A building?

Posted by Shipman 2005-05-31 16:45|| 2005-05-31 16:45|| Front Page Top

#6 Several helicopter carriers that could easily embark VTOL aircraft.

Posted by john 2005-05-31 17:09|| 2005-05-31 17:09|| Front Page Top

#7 Glad to hear about them.

Posted by Shipman 2005-05-31 17:41|| 2005-05-31 17:41|| Front Page Top

#8 Japanese Plutonium Program Threatens Nonproliferation Regime, Warn Nobel Laureates and Other Experts
UN Delegates Told Reprocessing Plant Could Produce Plutonium for 1,000 Nuclear Bombs a Year
--snip--
Despite the fact that Japan has a stated policy of having "no surplus plutonium," at the end of 2003 its plutonium stockpile stood at 40.6 metric tonsâenough to construct some 5,000 nuclear weapons.
--snip--
"With Rokkasho operational, by 2020 Japan's domestic stock of plutonium could equal the U.S. stockpile of plutonium for weapons," said Frank von Hippel, physicist and professor at the Science and Global Security Program at Princeton. "Separated plutonium poses a risk of theft, and such large stocks would be destabilizing."

Posted by john 2005-05-31 18:11|| 2005-05-31 18:11|| Front Page Top

#9 Officially, Japan has no Navy. Its self defense forces have several of these.
The Japanese refuse to call them carriers.

Posted by john 2005-05-31 18:27|| 2005-05-31 18:27|| Front Page Top

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