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The US Fears the World will Discover its Big Nuclear Secret

Ever since the Fukushima nuclear meltdown the US has taken a close interest in Japan’s nuclear program, and wields its geopolitical mite to influence that program as much as possible.

As Mitsuhei Murata, the former Japanese ambassador to Switzerland, said in August last year: “In the US there are 31 [sic] units the same type of that of Fukushima nuclear plant [23 are virtually identical to Fukushima]. So, if the accident be spread too far that really embarrasses the US. So that is why the crisis of Unit 4 has been toned down recently. The USA is actually the main reason.”

So the US has been determined to play down the negative press about the Fukushima disaster, in order to avoid any close analysis of its own nuclear power plants back home, and protect its nuclear industry from facing a similar public backlash to Japan’s poor industry.

Related article: Climate Policy Spells Turn Around for Exelon

One of the ways that the US tried to calm the furore over the Fukushima disaster, was to help Japan to raise the acceptable radiation levels, so that any leak of radioactive particles would be deemed less serious.

And ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was thought to have signed an agreement with her Japanese counterpart to promise that the US would continue to buy seafood from Japan, as proof that all is well, even though the FD has so far refused to actually test the sea-food for any radiation and determine that it is safe for consumption.

As part of the US’s efforts to keep Japan’s nuclear industry alive, at the end of last month, Mainichi Shimbum, one of the largest Japanese newspapers, reported that “the Japanese prime ministerial envoy secretly promised to the United States that Japan would resume its controversial ‘pluthermal’ program, using light-water reactors to burn plutonium, according to documents obtained by the Mainichi.”

The ‘pluthermal’ program mixes uranium with plutonium, extracted from spent nuclear fuel, to form a mixed-oxide (MOX). The resulting MOX fuel can then be used in light-water reactors, and provides a useful means of disposing of dangerous plutonium.

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Nuclear experts have criticised Japan’s program, questioning the high costs, and the high risks that the MOC fuel poses, due to its lower melting point, and therefore higher risk of suffering a meltdown.

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The decision to resume the pluthermal program could be very controversial, especially as the country has still not decided which nuclear reactors it will approve for restart.

By. Joao Peixe of Oilprice.com



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Leave a comment
  • Sabina on September 09 2013 said:
    The two main German TV channels each reported
    on 7 August 2013
    that 3oo tons of contaminated water
    have been leaking (slushing?) into the Pacific
    daily from Fukushima since the accident in 2011
  • Fish Gone Bad on July 17 2013 said:
    I have to agree with Joe Fission that there were any dirty little secrets reveled in this article. So let me help everyone out:
    Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
    (http://www.ccnr.org/)
    Take a look at the stuff on tritium just for fun. Tritium really gets to go everywhere water goes.

    How about some maps:
    http://blog.safecast.org/maps/
    http://www.radiationnetwork.com/

    How about some YouTube videos:
    http://www.youtube.com/user/asuperdry
    http://www.youtube.com/user/AluminumStudios

    Are things bad? No, not really. They are actually kinda fucked.

    fishgonebad
  • THETHOUGHTPOLICE on July 12 2013 said:
    Whats to worry about nuclear energy and the waste produced? how about you still can't eat the food/drink the milk of animals in some area's as far away as Scotland because the radioactivity from Chernobyl still lingers 27 years later. The people so unlucky to be born in the future will certainly blame us for leaving the mess they'll surely inherit...
  • GrigoriRasputin on July 12 2013 said:
    Joe Fission, I haven't eaten any seafood in several years. There is no way to verify the origin of what we get and whether or not it came from the Pacific or from the Gulf of Mexico. It was bad enough when BP's oil spill and dumping of many thousands of gallons of Corexit into the Gulf, destroyed the integrity of seafood from that body of water. I love seafood but cancer, either now or later on, from such an event does not rate as acceptable on my agenda.

    When the Fukushima incident occurred, it further reduced my inclination to eat seafood. Tuna has been found in the Pacific with very high radiation content. Eat away and enjoy if you like.

    This wonderful radioactive world is only growing and will only grow with time. I just hope the proponents die a ghastlier death from it than those of us who tried to warn of the dangers.
  • lucille on July 12 2013 said:
    In one day, that's all it will take. A bad earthquake and the whole thing comes apart and the USA will be uninhabitable. We will all return from wherever we came from.
  • banana breath on July 12 2013 said:
    Joe Fission, you're completely missing the point, or you just wanted to use a minimally related article to get on your soap box of how nuclear power is safe. I think you're one of those guys that gets ultra defensive and whiney any time someone tries to chip away at your foundation of humanism.
  • Joe Fission on July 11 2013 said:
    I fail to see any dirty little secrets the nuclear industry is hiding which are unveiled in this article.

    What is the problem with there being Fukushima type reactors in the U.S.? Are they in danger of a 9.0 earthquake followed by a massive tsunami? If they are, make sure the sea wall is large enough to handle the wave. Otherwise, the plant is a very sound design. Just as a reminder, nobody has been killed by the triple meltdown in Japan. 20,000 people were killed by the natural disasters though.

    Do you have any proof that the fish from Japan is dangerously radioactive? Any proof at all? If you do not, you are fear mongering.

    To do with MOX, how much lower is the melting point of the fuel? 10*C? 20*C? 50*C? Does it actually pose a substantial risk for easier meltdown? Do you have any sources that show that MOX fuel is inherently less safe than regular UO2 fuel? Are you simply floating this idea of "higher risk of suffering a meltdown" to drum up some extra nuclear fear?

    This entire article is a poor attempt to spread fear regarding nuclear power with no real effort to substantiate the claims made. This article is FUD.
  • Jim on July 08 2013 said:
    That explains why the fish in my freezer glow in the dark.

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