Nuclear Waste Processing Plant Environmental Threat?

July 11, 2008 08:51 PM

Activists in Japan say a nuclear waste processing plant in northern Japan threatens the environment and should not be opened as scheduled this Fall. A documentary on the controversial plant and its potential effects on the rest of the world screens at the University of Hawaii this weekend. "Now in the middle of the village at the highest point with the best views, a plant has been built for the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants," said the film's director. Instead of just burying the spent fuel from nuclear reactors as the United States does, Japan is trying to extract useable plutonium from that radioactive fuel. The country has spent $20 billion over the past 15 years to build this first nuclear waste reprocessing plant, but there's a complication. A reprocessing plant discharges as much radioactive material in a day as a nuclear reactor releases in a year. The radioactive substances released from the chimney will be carried on the wind and spread out across the farmland that lies downwind. Radioactive waste will also be discharged into the ocean through a huge pipe that extends two miles off shore, and that worries surfers and fishermen who have complained to the government. "What they say is the ocean is big, so no problem. That's not the point; it's going to get to the fish," said David Kinoshita, a surfer from Japan. Ryo Kubota, a UH graduate student, says discharge from the plant could even affect Hawaii. "The North Pacific current goes from Japan all the way to United States and current comes back to Hawaii. so that if something happens in Japan, that pollutant can reach Hawaii," said Kubota. That's why Kubota helped bring the documentary called "Rokkasho Rhapsody" to the University of Hawaii. The film chronicles the efforts of Japanese activists to call attention to the danger of radioactive contamination. "Rokkasho Rhapsody" screens in Spaulding auditorium at 5pm Saturday and 2pm on Sunday.

Last Updated ( July 11, 2008 08:51 PM )