Japan nuclear waste plan: ‘regeneration’
Monday, June 8, 1998 | 10:36 a.m.
TOKYO -- Gov. Bob Miller never misses an opportunity to get new perspectives on how to deal with the nuclear waste issue. Today at the American Embassy in Japan was no different.
Apologizing in advance to members of the 10-member contingent who had come to talk tourism, Miller picked the brain of Milton Eaton, a representative of the U.S. Department of Energy stationed at the Tokyo embassy.
How, Miller asked, do the Japanese deal with the problem of nuclear waste?
"They'll regenerate it," Eaton said. "It's an option that makes absolutely no economic sense."
Nevertheless, Eaton said, that's the plan -- at least on paper. To regenerate nuclear waste, special plants would have to be built to extract usable uranium and plutonium from spent fuel.
Eaton said Japan's nuclear power plants currently store waste on site, just as is done in the United States. But in the United States, the federal government is attempting get legislation approved to allow the shipment of nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, northwest of Las Vegas. Miller actively has fought to block the storage of nuclear waste on Nevada soil.
But Eaton seemed skeptical that the reprocessing proposal ever would come to fruition. He said the last expansion of a nuclear power plant in Japan occurred in 1975 when new units were added to an existing facility. The Japanese have considered burying their nuclear waste in a repository like the one planned at Yucca Mountain. To do so, however, would require the construction of a facility in a geologically safe area.
"And in Japan," Eaton said, "there's no such thing in these volcanic islands."
It would be well into the 21st century before Japan could have a reprocessing plant available.
On another nuclear issue, Embassy staff members conducting a briefing for the Nevada contingent explained Japan's stance in the conflict between India and Pakistan.
Larry Greenwood, economic minister for the Embassy, said Japan has taken an active role in defusing the dispute. Japan, he said, is leading an effort to bring economic sanctions against the two countries for their testing of nuclear weapons.
Japan and the United States, Greenwood said, are emerging as the world leaders taking a stand against the proliferation of weapons in that portion of the world.
archive
- Most Read
- Discussed
- Most E-mailed
- Man, 26, dies in collision with truck traveling at 100 mph
- CityCenter completion might spur home foreclosures
- Casino venue in Singapore will have Las Vegas flavor
- MGM Mirage: CityCenter not affected by debt woes
- Metro admits to improper release of criminal history data
- Real estate experts cautiously optimistic about market
- Locomotives win inaugural UFL championship
- Bargain hunters hit stores for Black Friday
- Was a foiled bank heist a cry for help?
- Allegiant defies aviation convention with 20 percent growth in sight
Blogs
The Kats Report
Could a savior of shuttered Las Vegas Art Museum be ... Peter Max? (6 Comments)
For Paul Stanley and KISS, rock and roll is not over (6 Comments)
Twenty years ago today, Human Nature took root on the farm (1 Comment)
Robin Leach's Las Vegas Celebrity Watch
Photo Gallery: Donny Osmond’s triumphant return to the Flamingo
The Kats Report
'DWTS' champ Donny Osmond still deft afoot in return to Flamingo (8 Comments)
Politics: The Early Line
Meeting of GOP governors draws challengers, not Gibbons (5 Comments)
Politics: Ralston's Flash
Oscar loves forcing developers to sign labor peace agreements, Culinary loves the city's downtown plans and all is forgiven (10 Comments)
Calendar »
- 29 Sun
- 30 Mon
- 1 Tue
- 2 Wed
- 3 Thu
-
Tahoe Takeover at The Bank
The Bank | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Playboy Club model search
Playboy Club | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Queen of Queens at Revolution Lounge
Beatles Revolution Lounge | 10 p.m. to 11:59 p.m.
-
Zowie Bowie's Vintage Vegas Show at Monte Carlo
Lance Burton Theater
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
Technorati









