Fifty years after the onset of the nuclear age, the world is increasingly turning away from nuclear power as a viable future energy source, seeing more and more the disastrous price we have already paid for it in death and environmental destruction. As a result of mounting public opposition, continuing technical problems, high costs, and the yet unsolved dilemma of waste disposal, the worldwide nuclear industry is in decline.

       One notable exception is Japan, which is expanding its nuclear program by pursuing an ambitious plutonium-based energy policy. When fully implemented, the Japanese program will involve shipping massive amounts of plutonium across the world's oceans and result in the production of more of that deadly substance than currently exists in the combined U.S. and Soviet nuclear arsenals.

       Plutonium, a by-product of burning uranium in conventional reactors, is the most toxic radioactive substance known to humankind and an essential nuclear weapons material. Japan plans to burn plutonium in both conventional and fast breeder reactors. Fast breeder reactors produce more plutonium than they originally consume, creating an ever increasing supply of fuel. It was this self-supplying aspect of fast breeder technology that so captivated Japanese and Western policy makers in the aftermath of the 1970s oil shocks.

       Twenty years and tens of billions of dollars later, however, fast breeder technology has failed to live up to its promise of providing cheap, 'renewable' energy. The severe environmental and health risks inherent in fast breeder technology have made it extremely expensive and unpopular. Countries like the U.S., Germany, and Britain have abandoned their fast breeder programs because of their prohibitive cost, continuing technical failures, and intense public opposition. If Japan pushes forward with its plutonium policy, it is likely to give new impetus to a technology deemed too dangerous by most nuclear nations and opposed by a majority of the Earth's inhabitants.

       Japan is currently building a nuclear fuel cycle facility to extract plutonium from conventional nuclear reactor wastes. When completed, the Rokkasho fuel complex will be the largest of its kind in the world and will be able to separate five tons of plutonium a year.

       The potential risks of overseas plutonium transport are enormous. In a collision, shipboard fire, or sinking, this toxin with a half-life of 24,000 years could enter the food chain and cause an environmental disaster of unprecedented magnitude. Plutonium is also a highly desirable target of terrorists seeking to acquire nuclear arms. A single plutonium shipment could be made into as many as 150 nuclear bombs.

       A larger Japanese plutonium stockpile will also pose a serious threat to international security and nuclear non-proliferation. It will make it nearly impossible to dissuade other nations, especially Pacific nations wary of resurgent Japanese military power, from amassing their own nuclear stores under the guise of civilian nuclear programs. This is already a reality in North Korea, where the government, pointing to Japan's own plutonium program, has rebuffed calls by the U.S. and Japanese to dismantle a large reprocessing plant under construction. Current arms reductions efforts also could be undermined if the U.S. and the former Soviet Union find it impossible to destroy their own plutonium stocks in the face of a Japanese stockpile.

       Finally, considering the radical changes in the world order that have taken place in just the past two years, and the fact that plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years, the future implications of widespread civilian plutonium use are frightening.

A number of environmental and nuclear watchdog organizations, including Greenpeace International, and The Nuclear Control Institute, are actively opposing Japan's plutonium program. In Berkeley and Tokyo, an organization calling itself Plutonium Free Future has been working since February of 1992 to publicize and mobilize opposition to Japan's plutonium policy.

For more information contact: Plutonium Free Future, P.O. Box 2589, Berkeley, CA 94702 USA. tel: 510-540-7645, fax: 510-540- 6159, email:pff@igc.apo.com.

Nora Akino, a freelance writer residing in Berkeley California, has worked with Plutonium Free Future for the past year[1993]. She is a Japanese citizen, raised in the US.

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