By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
The promise to reduce Fissile Material and Weapons Grade Plutonium made a good step from Japan in a recent agreement between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Barrack Obama duing a meeting in The Hague.
CNN reports Japan and the United States have co-signed an agreement to remove and dispose of hundreds of kilograms of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and separated plutonium from the Asian nation.
The fissile material will be transported from the Fast Critical Assembly (FCA) at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in Japan to a “secure facility” in the United States, according to a statement released by the White House, and “fully converted into less sensitive forms.”
“This pledge complements the significant role that both Japan and the United States are playing in finding new ways to continue improving global nuclear security … Japan has demonstrated its leadership by resolving to remove all special nuclear material from the FCA.
“Our two countries encourage others to consider what they can do to further HEU and plutonium minimization.”
Low expectations for Iran nuke talks The U.S. has a longstanding goal of reducing — and safeguarding — the world’s stockpile of fissile material, in an effort to reduce access by terrorist groups, criminals and “unauthorized actors.”
The deal comes at a time when the U.S. hopes to persuade Iran to halt their enrichment program, and tensions on the Korean Peninsula are hightened by North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Barack Obama announced the deal this week at the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague.
It allows for over 700 lb (315 kg) of weapons-grade nuclear material to be transported and “downblended” into safer material in the United States. The fuel, which was purchased from the U.S. in the 1960s, has been used by the JAEA for research purposes.
The agreed-upon amount which will head to the United States is a fraction of Japan’s overall plutonium holdings.
“This is the biggest commitment to remove fissile materials in the history of the summit process that President Obama launched,” Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall of the National Security Council told the New York Times. “It is a demonstration of Japan’s shared leadership on nonproliferation.”
Japanese senior national security adviser Yosuke Isozaki told the Japan Times that “Japan shares a vision of a world without nuclear weapons.”
While certainly laudable in this agreement between nations it is small in terms of having the same material in other nations. It also could be argued that the United States is becoming a repository for nuclear material to be stored and guarded at great expense.
By Darren Smith
Sources:
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Don’t believe the hype.
Excerpted from:
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2014/03/14-nuclear-security-japan-plutonium-path
Nuclear Security and Japan’s Plutonium Path
At the third Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, beginning March 24, world leaders will announce new initiatives to secure or eliminate stocks of plutonium and highly-enriched uranium, key building blocks of nuclear weapons that could be stolen by terrorists. But some nations are still producing these materials or plan to begin doing so on an industrial scale.
Japan’s government has just announced a Basic Energy Plan that renews the country’s commitment to plutonium as a fuel for nuclear reactors. The centerpiece of that effort, the Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Facility, is set to open as early as October 2014 as one of the world’s largest plutonium production installations. The size and suitability of the facility have raised concerns, not only within Japan but in the region and in Washington. What is the status of the policy debate over Japan’s nuclear energy policy, including the Rokkasho plant? Why has Japan’s government chosen to proceed with the plant’s construction and operation? How does the Japanese government plan to deal with the plutonium produced in the plant? And how will Japan’s nuclear energy policy, and especially the operation of Rokkasho, impact efforts to secure and eliminate nuclear materials?
Why does the government of Japan want to pursue the Rokkasho Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Facility?
China or the need for a credible and easily assembled nuclear deterrent, so much for Japan’s pacifist constitution.
Stanley,
It’s Over!
I know & I think you know.
I can’t write it right now but it’s all in my head & I will at some point soon put it out for all to see.
If not me millions of others will.
The Nuke power Scam/Energy Scam…..
Wallst Banks/Insurance Scams/fraud….
Enough with the cops shooting puppies & their Chiefs covering for them, Priests raping lil kids.
A dozen cops raping a school teacher 5-6 years ago in Ohio on video getting off with no charges.
Put a fork in it, it’s done!
We deal with it now or tomorrow, but it’ll not be put off for long before it’s dealt with!
It’s easy for me to understand why Wallst/City of London Banks/Insurance co’s financed/supported people like Hitler/Stalin/Clinton/Bush/Obama, because they are Lunatics!
So it is no surprise to me the Lunatics Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Barrack Obama worked a deal to make Jap/GE Nuke dirty bomb into a US/GE Nuke dirty bomb.
What’s troublesome to me is the apologist for those Lunatics.
Some of these apologist are supposed to be educated with Phd-Wash Rm Attendant degrees.
We should burn their papers immediately as they’ve Failed the course of life on this planet! Nuremberg Style! ( Crimes Against Humanity!)
One doesn’t have to be an expert on history to know the facts on the Nuke Kooks.
I’m sure some of Einstein, Oppenheimer & their peer groups comments are held as top secret by our govt, but regardless there is enough info from their 1st hand public comments & from the 2nd generation Nuke experts to understand the dangers to the planet of using Nuke Power to boil Water for electric generation.
These apologist for those Lunatic govt leaders make me think they are nothing now more then brain dead Zombies who either can’t/won’t read the publicly available date. ( Use Google Apologist Lunatics!)
I consider them much in the same light as Ms South Carolina, that if they only had more Maps then they might understand, ya right.) 🙂
(Keep your Phk’in Sheeet off my Lawn Nuke Kooks! I’ve enough trouble with the Coal/Oil/NG Kooks)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it” George Orwell
Screw you suicidal apologist, for my expanded family & friends there is no down side to opposing your death wish! Burn in hell Nuke Kooks.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-03-30/guest-post-conditioning-which-keeps-people-subservient-abusive-leadership
What a great deal for Japan. Now if only we could find a country to buy our nuclear material that we no longer want.
They could take this material to Fukishishma or however ya spull it and let the locals deal with it there. It will be washing up on the LA shore in about a year.
It is a big mistake to allow third world countries or pirate territories to have nuclear power plants.
What word best describes those who order the development and potential use of nuclear weapons? “Terrorist criminal” doesn’t seem quite strong enough.
Someone wake up Dredd, this is his cup o’ tea.
Very interesting Darren. Who pays for the transfer? I didn’t see anything in the CNN article that discusses what our costs are in this transfer.
Darren Smith is not only good, he’s a workhorse! I would give him a bonus.
I live just a few miles from Nuclear Fuels, where they recycle nuclear waste. As you might imagine, security there is very tight, and there are layers of security. I have interviewed a number of their former security guards, all of whom had security clearances. They are very tight-lipped about security and safeguards.
Oak Ridge is not very far from here as the crow flies. Of course, nothing is close by road when you live in the mountains.
Based on what I have been able to learn that is not behind the security veil, it sounds as if there are massive redundancies built in. Although there is no completely earthquake-free area on the planet, plate tectonics being what they are, this is a geologically stable area. That is, until they started mountaintop removal and fracking. Who knows what that will do to the subsurface of the earth’s crust.
Even apart from the USA taking on a negative ecology position on its own soil, this looks like a big waste of taxpayer money while some already rich corporation gets richer without helping anyone not a part of it. That’s a long way to haul hazardous waste.