THIS MAY BE ONE OF THE BIG - BIG STORIES IN JAPAN OVER THE NEXT FEW MILLENIUM.
Doubt cast on nuclear recycling policy
Plans to reprocess spent fuel opposed on grounds of danger, cost
AOMORI (Kyodo) Doubt has been cast on Japan's atomic fuel recycling policy, with lawmakers of the ruling parties calling for changes to the nation's long-term plan for nuclear power development.
Central to the debate is the plan to reprocess all spent nuclear fuel in order to obtain plutonium for reuse as a fuel, industry sources said.
Taro Kono, a House of Representatives member of the Liberal Democratic Party, told a meeting of citizens here on May 8, "Let's stop and deepen the nationwide debate."
Kono, the son of House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, advocated the postponement of a uranium test to confirm the ability of a plant in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.
The reprocessing plant, which is being built by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. with investment from electric power companies, is the pillar of Japan's nuclear fuel recycling policy, but the work has been delayed due to construction problems.
The plant was originally scheduled to open in 2005 but is now scheduled to start operating in 2006.
Kono's remark has sparked controversy because the Aomori governor and other officials have repeatedly asked the central government to continue with existing plans.
Japan already has a stockpile of 33 tons of plutonium obtained by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel overseas, as well as 5.4 tons of plutonium extracted at home.
There are numerous problems with using plutonium as a fuel. It is one of the world's most toxic substances and is the raw material used to make atomic bombs.
The largest consumers of plutonium would be high-speed breeder reactors, but these reactors have been plagued with trouble across the globe.
A massive leak of sodium coolant at the the Monju fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, in 1995 forced a suspension of operations. It remains unclear when, if ever, it will restart.
Under the so-called pluthermal (plutonium thermal) project to burn plutonium at conventional nuclear power plants, 16 to 18 plants were to be converted by 2010.
However, there is a long way to go before Kansai, the Kyushu and Shikoku Electric Power companies can reach this goal, industry sources said.
Even if the reprocessing plant in Rokkasho starts operating, its annual reprocessing capacity will be 800 tons, compared with the 1,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel that comes from domestic nuclear power stations annually.
An interim storage facility is scheduled to be built in order to hold the spent nuclear fuel until the completion of a second reprocessing plant.
But there is little likelihood the plan will be carried out.
"We have no intention whatsoever to build a second reprocessing plant," said an executive of an electric power company.
According to an estimate by the Federation of Electric Power Companies, the cost of reprocessing at the Rokkasho plant, including the disposal of radioactive waste, would be 18.8 trillion yen.
Industry sources said it is quite natural for electric power companies, facing challenges as a result of deregulation, to rethink the building of a second plant.
There are calls to bury the spent fuel underground instead, as is the case in the United States.
The government's Atomic Power Commission will create a forum next month to review the long-term plan over a period of one year, sources said.
The Japan Times: May 21, 2004
(C) All rights reserved
Friday, May 21, 2004
Read this one carefully! The reporter uses a lot of maybe's and migh be's. However if the government does work a deal which allows the N. Korean ship to enter Japan on a special case basis the government has joined in a conspiracy to commit a crime which means that you go to jail for doing it. Do you want a criminal for a P.M.?
Harassment of Korean residents may come up in Koizumi-Kim talks
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi might express concern over the harassment of Korean residents in Japan that followed North Korea's admission in 2002 that it had abducted Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, government sources said Thursday.
By expressing such concerns during his Saturday meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Koizumi apparently hopes to show that he takes the matter seriously. The move is an apparent attempt to soften Pyongyang's stance on pending bilateral issues.
He might also tell Kim that if the family members of five repatriated abductees are allowed to leave North Korea for Japan, the government would not invoke an envisioned law that would allow it to ban the port entry of certain ships, particularly those from North Korea, the sources said.
The bill is apparently aimed at the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92, which travels between Japan and North Korea. Police suspect it is involved in espionage and other illegal activities.
A government source said North Korea "suspects Japan does not really intend to normalize bilateral ties" because anti-North Korea sentiment among Japanese heightened after the five abductees were allowed to return to Japan in October 2002.
Koizumi might say he intends to address the harassment problem, while strongly urging Kim to allow the abductees' families go to Japan and provide more information on other missing Japanese.
Some in the government have urged that the harassment problem be treated separately from the abduction issue, and that steps be taken to prevent further harassment.
The pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) said it received about 300 reports of harassment against students of pro-Pyongyang schools in the week after North Korea owned up to the abductions at the 2002 landmark summit between Koizumi and Kim.
Jenkins a problem
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ryozo Kato said Wednesday that Japan must work to find a solution to the case of Charles Robert Jenkins, who faces court-martial for desertion by the U.S. if North Korea allows him to come to Japan.
Jenkins is married to freed Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga.
At the same time, however, Kato told reporters that the United States will also have to take legal action against Jenkins under military law.
"The current situation does not allow me to tell how the issue will develop," he said.
Jenkins, 64, whose 45-year-old wife is one of five Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in 1978 and repatriated to Japan in 2002, remains in North Korea with the couple's two daughters.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Pyongyang on Saturday to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in the hope of securing the passage to Japan of the repatriated abductees' kin.
If Jenkins comes to Japan, the U.S. government is expected to ask Tokyo to hand him over for court-martial. Japan has been asking the United States to give Jenkins "special consideration," including a pardon.
On Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage described Jenkins' case as "very sensitive."
Media muzzle sought
The five Japanese repatriated after being abducted to North Korea asked media organizations Thursday to refrain from reporting on their family members if they come to Japan from North Korea.
They filed the request with the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan, and the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, saying they do not want their eight family members to participate in news conferences "until they understand the circumstances they are placed in."
The Japan Times: May 21, 2004
Harassment of Korean residents may come up in Koizumi-Kim talks
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi might express concern over the harassment of Korean residents in Japan that followed North Korea's admission in 2002 that it had abducted Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, government sources said Thursday.
By expressing such concerns during his Saturday meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Koizumi apparently hopes to show that he takes the matter seriously. The move is an apparent attempt to soften Pyongyang's stance on pending bilateral issues.
He might also tell Kim that if the family members of five repatriated abductees are allowed to leave North Korea for Japan, the government would not invoke an envisioned law that would allow it to ban the port entry of certain ships, particularly those from North Korea, the sources said.
The bill is apparently aimed at the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92, which travels between Japan and North Korea. Police suspect it is involved in espionage and other illegal activities.
A government source said North Korea "suspects Japan does not really intend to normalize bilateral ties" because anti-North Korea sentiment among Japanese heightened after the five abductees were allowed to return to Japan in October 2002.
Koizumi might say he intends to address the harassment problem, while strongly urging Kim to allow the abductees' families go to Japan and provide more information on other missing Japanese.
Some in the government have urged that the harassment problem be treated separately from the abduction issue, and that steps be taken to prevent further harassment.
The pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) said it received about 300 reports of harassment against students of pro-Pyongyang schools in the week after North Korea owned up to the abductions at the 2002 landmark summit between Koizumi and Kim.
Jenkins a problem
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ryozo Kato said Wednesday that Japan must work to find a solution to the case of Charles Robert Jenkins, who faces court-martial for desertion by the U.S. if North Korea allows him to come to Japan.
Jenkins is married to freed Japanese abductee Hitomi Soga.
At the same time, however, Kato told reporters that the United States will also have to take legal action against Jenkins under military law.
"The current situation does not allow me to tell how the issue will develop," he said.
Jenkins, 64, whose 45-year-old wife is one of five Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in 1978 and repatriated to Japan in 2002, remains in North Korea with the couple's two daughters.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will visit Pyongyang on Saturday to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in the hope of securing the passage to Japan of the repatriated abductees' kin.
If Jenkins comes to Japan, the U.S. government is expected to ask Tokyo to hand him over for court-martial. Japan has been asking the United States to give Jenkins "special consideration," including a pardon.
On Tuesday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage described Jenkins' case as "very sensitive."
Media muzzle sought
The five Japanese repatriated after being abducted to North Korea asked media organizations Thursday to refrain from reporting on their family members if they come to Japan from North Korea.
They filed the request with the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association, the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan, and the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, saying they do not want their eight family members to participate in news conferences "until they understand the circumstances they are placed in."
The Japan Times: May 21, 2004
Thursday, May 20, 2004
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20 May 2004
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD GEEKS: Grist seeks an IT systems specialist and a production coordinator.
1.
JUSTICE OF THE GREENPEACE
Federal Case Against Greenpeace Thrown Out of Court
The U.S. government's unusual criminal suit against Greenpeace USA was rather unceremoniously booted from federal court yesterday by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan. In a rare "directed verdict," the judge found the group not guilty midway through the trial, after the prosecution had presented its case but before the group's lawyers presented any defense. The case revolved around two members of Greenpeace who boarded a ship near the Port of Miami-Dade to protest its load of Amazonian mahogany. In a highly atypical move, government prosecutors sought to indict not just the individual protesters but the group itself under an obscure 1872 law -- not enforced in over a century -- that prohibits "sailor mongering," or boarding ships in an attempt to lure sailors ashore to brothels and bars. Because the decision did not go to jury, the government cannot appeal. The case, said Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando, "showed the extent to which the government will go to criminalize free speech.'"
straight to the source: The Miami Herald, Jay Weaver, 20 May 2004
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 19 May 2004
2.
SURVIVAL OF THE WEAKEST
Humans Affecting Evolution of Other Species
Lay scientists tend to think of evolution as a glacially slow process, with changes measured in hundreds of thousands of years, not decades. However, growing collaboration between ecologists and evolutionary biologists is highlighting a phenomenon called "contemporary evolution" -- and it ain't pretty. Turns out, by culling the largest, healthiest, and most robust specimens from a species, human beings can precipitate a sort of rapid devolution, an evolutionary trend toward smaller, weaker populations that works over generations, not centuries. The phenomenon can be observed across the animal world -- for example, hunters have left mountain sheep in Alberta, Canada, shrinking, along with their horns -- but it is particularly perspicuous in the world's fisheries. Some scientists trace the precipitous decline of the cod population to fishing practices that value the largest fish; the result has been a population of fish that mature earlier and smaller, are unable to produce robust offspring, and lack the genetic diversity to breed their way out of trouble. Researchers recommend a broad rethinking of practices for protecting endangered species and managing wildlife habitats, fisheries, and hunting ranges.
straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Peter N. Spotts, 20 May 2004
3.
SECURITY BLANKET
Environmental Security Starting to Get Attention
On the list of security threats facing the world's nations -- nuclear proliferation, terrorism, neoconservatives -- the environment deserves a place near the top, say a growing number of experts. Climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, and the like can lead to conflict over scarce resources and to massive waves of migration. Geoffrey Dabelko -- director of the Environmental Change and Security Project and an all-around brainy guy -- attended the recent Hague Conference on Environment, Security, and Sustainable Development, where a group of folks mainly from wealthy nations discussed troubled transatlantic relations and possibilities for environmental rapprochement. And for another perspective, he followed it up with a meeting at the U.N. Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, where developing countries stressed that many of their environmental-security problems were the result of deleterious Western industrial and trade policies. Dabelko wrote some thought-provoking reports on the proceedings in Dispatches -- today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: Geoffrey Dabelko journals on environmental security -- in Dispatches
4.
404 ERROR: FAILURE TO RECYCLE
Computer Manufacturers Get Low Grades on Recycling
Computer makers' environmental programs generally stink, though U.S. companies -- particularly Dell and Hewlett-Packard -- are better than most, says an annual report released yesterday by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an enviro group based in San Jose, Calif. No company is recycling more than 2 percent of its products -- products chock-full of lead, polyvinyl chloride, mercury, and other hazardous materials -- a statistic which coalition director Ted Smith called "pathetic." Coalition researchers singled out Dell for particular praise. The company, which received terrible scores on last year's report, has stopped using prison labor to recycle products and launched a new recycling campaign. A number of states are considering bills that would make manufacturers responsible, to some extent at least, for electronics recycling.
straight to the source: MSNBC, Associated Press, 20 May 2004
straight to the source: The New York Times, Laurie J. Flynn, 19 May 2004
see also, in Grist: Control-Alt-Recycle -- tips on greener computing -- in Earthly Possessions
5.
THE LAWN AND SHORT OF IT
Organic Lawn Care Taking Off
With the U.S. adding some 2 million acres of residential property a year, lawns are becoming a significant environmental issue. In addition to sucking up water -- the average lawn drinks about 10,000 gallons of water over and above rainfall, says the U.S. EPA -- lawns are frequently doused with fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that pollute groundwater, kill worms and other small creatures, and can slowly poison kids and pets. Add in gas-guzzling, pollutant-spewing mowers and those lawns aren't looking so green after all. Thankfully, organic lawn care is growing in popularity. Recently, a group of lawn-care and pesticide-industry groups joined enviros and the EPA to create the "Lawn and Environment Coalition," which in March unveiled the first-ever guidelines for eco-friendly lawn care. Although there are no federally established and enforced standards for what counts as organic -- a situation enviros lament -- many companies are coming out with lines of lawn-care products labeled as such. "Hybrid mowers, water-conserving sprinklers, and organic fertilizers are all potential gold mines for industry players," wrote industry analyst Don Montuori.
straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Mark Clayton, 20 May 2004
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Also in GRIST MAGAZINE:
Fowl play -- factory farms get sweetheart deal on air pollution from EPA -- in Muckraker
All bottled up -- bottled water flies off the shelves, but smart money is on filter systems -- by P.W. McRandle in Earthly Possessions
A tale of two mayors -- the improbable story of how Bogota, Colombia, became somewhere you might actually want to live -- in Main Dish
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DAILY GRIST
20 May 2004
Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE
LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD GEEKS: Grist seeks an IT systems specialist and a production coordinator.
1.
JUSTICE OF THE GREENPEACE
Federal Case Against Greenpeace Thrown Out of Court
The U.S. government's unusual criminal suit against Greenpeace USA was rather unceremoniously booted from federal court yesterday by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan. In a rare "directed verdict," the judge found the group not guilty midway through the trial, after the prosecution had presented its case but before the group's lawyers presented any defense. The case revolved around two members of Greenpeace who boarded a ship near the Port of Miami-Dade to protest its load of Amazonian mahogany. In a highly atypical move, government prosecutors sought to indict not just the individual protesters but the group itself under an obscure 1872 law -- not enforced in over a century -- that prohibits "sailor mongering," or boarding ships in an attempt to lure sailors ashore to brothels and bars. Because the decision did not go to jury, the government cannot appeal. The case, said Greenpeace Executive Director John Passacantando, "showed the extent to which the government will go to criminalize free speech.'"
straight to the source: The Miami Herald, Jay Weaver, 20 May 2004
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 19 May 2004
2.
SURVIVAL OF THE WEAKEST
Humans Affecting Evolution of Other Species
Lay scientists tend to think of evolution as a glacially slow process, with changes measured in hundreds of thousands of years, not decades. However, growing collaboration between ecologists and evolutionary biologists is highlighting a phenomenon called "contemporary evolution" -- and it ain't pretty. Turns out, by culling the largest, healthiest, and most robust specimens from a species, human beings can precipitate a sort of rapid devolution, an evolutionary trend toward smaller, weaker populations that works over generations, not centuries. The phenomenon can be observed across the animal world -- for example, hunters have left mountain sheep in Alberta, Canada, shrinking, along with their horns -- but it is particularly perspicuous in the world's fisheries. Some scientists trace the precipitous decline of the cod population to fishing practices that value the largest fish; the result has been a population of fish that mature earlier and smaller, are unable to produce robust offspring, and lack the genetic diversity to breed their way out of trouble. Researchers recommend a broad rethinking of practices for protecting endangered species and managing wildlife habitats, fisheries, and hunting ranges.
straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Peter N. Spotts, 20 May 2004
3.
SECURITY BLANKET
Environmental Security Starting to Get Attention
On the list of security threats facing the world's nations -- nuclear proliferation, terrorism, neoconservatives -- the environment deserves a place near the top, say a growing number of experts. Climate change, deforestation, soil erosion, and the like can lead to conflict over scarce resources and to massive waves of migration. Geoffrey Dabelko -- director of the Environmental Change and Security Project and an all-around brainy guy -- attended the recent Hague Conference on Environment, Security, and Sustainable Development, where a group of folks mainly from wealthy nations discussed troubled transatlantic relations and possibilities for environmental rapprochement. And for another perspective, he followed it up with a meeting at the U.N. Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, where developing countries stressed that many of their environmental-security problems were the result of deleterious Western industrial and trade policies. Dabelko wrote some thought-provoking reports on the proceedings in Dispatches -- today on the Grist Magazine website.
today in Grist: Geoffrey Dabelko journals on environmental security -- in Dispatches
4.
404 ERROR: FAILURE TO RECYCLE
Computer Manufacturers Get Low Grades on Recycling
Computer makers' environmental programs generally stink, though U.S. companies -- particularly Dell and Hewlett-Packard -- are better than most, says an annual report released yesterday by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, an enviro group based in San Jose, Calif. No company is recycling more than 2 percent of its products -- products chock-full of lead, polyvinyl chloride, mercury, and other hazardous materials -- a statistic which coalition director Ted Smith called "pathetic." Coalition researchers singled out Dell for particular praise. The company, which received terrible scores on last year's report, has stopped using prison labor to recycle products and launched a new recycling campaign. A number of states are considering bills that would make manufacturers responsible, to some extent at least, for electronics recycling.
straight to the source: MSNBC, Associated Press, 20 May 2004
straight to the source: The New York Times, Laurie J. Flynn, 19 May 2004
see also, in Grist: Control-Alt-Recycle -- tips on greener computing -- in Earthly Possessions
5.
THE LAWN AND SHORT OF IT
Organic Lawn Care Taking Off
With the U.S. adding some 2 million acres of residential property a year, lawns are becoming a significant environmental issue. In addition to sucking up water -- the average lawn drinks about 10,000 gallons of water over and above rainfall, says the U.S. EPA -- lawns are frequently doused with fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides that pollute groundwater, kill worms and other small creatures, and can slowly poison kids and pets. Add in gas-guzzling, pollutant-spewing mowers and those lawns aren't looking so green after all. Thankfully, organic lawn care is growing in popularity. Recently, a group of lawn-care and pesticide-industry groups joined enviros and the EPA to create the "Lawn and Environment Coalition," which in March unveiled the first-ever guidelines for eco-friendly lawn care. Although there are no federally established and enforced standards for what counts as organic -- a situation enviros lament -- many companies are coming out with lines of lawn-care products labeled as such. "Hybrid mowers, water-conserving sprinklers, and organic fertilizers are all potential gold mines for industry players," wrote industry analyst Don Montuori.
straight to the source: The Christian Science Monitor, Mark Clayton, 20 May 2004
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Also in GRIST MAGAZINE:
Fowl play -- factory farms get sweetheart deal on air pollution from EPA -- in Muckraker
All bottled up -- bottled water flies off the shelves, but smart money is on filter systems -- by P.W. McRandle in Earthly Possessions
A tale of two mayors -- the improbable story of how Bogota, Colombia, became somewhere you might actually want to live -- in Main Dish
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe to DAILY GRIST, click here
Daily too much for you? Try WEEKLY GRIST by clicking here
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Less time-consuming than hugging a tree. Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to support Grist:
Gloom and doom with a sense of humor. Impossible, you say? Nah. Visit GRIST MAGAZINE, a beacon in the smog, at
Sunday, May 16, 2004
I suggest you look at this complete article. This is an interesting Japanese case of human rights. See you on Tuesday. Clark
OPINION
=========================
Women, heritage and holy places
Imagine if women were not allowed to set foot on Mount Fuji or Kyoto's Mount Hiei. It's hard to envisage, isn't it? Women are as natural a sight there now as birds or stones -- or men. But little more than a century ago, it would have been hard to imagine them even approaching such places. A scholar at Kansai University's Institute of Human Rights Studies was quoted in this newspaper recently as saying that, before 1872, numerous sacred sites throughout Japan were off-limits to women, not just those two famous peaks. Yet since most such prohibitions were lifted by government fiat, women have done more than approach these venerable sites. They have walked and climbed and prayed there right along with men -- and behold, the sky has not fallen.
[MORE] ->
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ed20040516a1.htm
OPINION
=========================
Women, heritage and holy places
Imagine if women were not allowed to set foot on Mount Fuji or Kyoto's Mount Hiei. It's hard to envisage, isn't it? Women are as natural a sight there now as birds or stones -- or men. But little more than a century ago, it would have been hard to imagine them even approaching such places. A scholar at Kansai University's Institute of Human Rights Studies was quoted in this newspaper recently as saying that, before 1872, numerous sacred sites throughout Japan were off-limits to women, not just those two famous peaks. Yet since most such prohibitions were lifted by government fiat, women have done more than approach these venerable sites. They have walked and climbed and prayed there right along with men -- and behold, the sky has not fallen.
[MORE] ->
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?ed20040516a1.htm