We the undersigned groups petition

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
The Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Mr. Masayuki Naoshima
The Minister of Environment Mr. Sakihito Ozawa
The Governor of Saga prefecture Mr. Yasushi Furukawa
The Mayor of Genkai town Mr. Hideo Kishimoto
Kyushu Electric Power CO. INC., President Mr. Toshio Manabe

not to ignore the peoples’ voices and to stop the Pluthermal Project at Genkai nuclear power plant.

1) The Pluthermal Project is quite dangerous.

As it uses MOX fuel in a reactor originally designed for uranium fuel, the control rods' capacity to function is reduced and the power output is less stable and much harder to control.

KYUDEN is using MOX fuel with a higher concentration of plutonium (almost double) than that used in other countries.

Even a small accident or a breakdown when using deadly-poisonous plutonium might cause great damage to the environment and to the life and health of local people.

2) There are some serious doubts that big percentages of the defective MOX fuel have been mixed into the fuel.

KYUDEN hasn’t disclosed any information about the MOX fuel they were using for Genkai Unit 3, including whether or not the defective MOX fuel, which Kansai Electric Power CO. INC. had decided to reject as unsuitable fuel for their nuclear power plant, has been used in Genkai.

3) In a ministerial ordinance used by NISA (Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency), a subsidiary agency of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, as the baseline in their inspection of imported MOX fuel, there is absolutely no mention of which elements are to be tested or of what concrete numerical standard values are necessary, etc.

So even if the MOX fuel had passed the examination of the government this doesn’t guarantee its safety.

4) The government has no idea where to dispose spent MOX fuel, which takes 500 years before it can be cooled down to a temperature at which you can manage to bury it underground.

There is a strong possiblity that Genkai will be the actual disposal field for the spent MOX fuel.
We can’t leave such gigantic negative “inheritance” to future generations.

5) This Pluthermal Project is a part of the Japanese state policy “Nuclear Fuel Cycle”.

But Rokkasho Reproccesing Plant, a core project of the “Nuclear Fuel Cycle” plan, which was supposed to start its operation in 1997, still hasn’t started working because of a spate of troubles.

And so the “Nuclear Fuel Cycle” plan itself has already been wrecked.

We strongly demand a stop to Pluthermal nuclear generation in Genkai until these problems are solved.

The Steering Committee "MIRAI" (Japan)
Association for Protection of Bears and Forests in Japan, Fukuoka Branch (Japan)
Anti-Pluthermal Movement for Saga in 100 Years Time (Japan)
Network for Environment in Karatsu, Saga (Japan)
Network of Individual Shareholders of KYUDEN to Stop Nuclear Power Plants (Japan)

endorsed (Group name and country)

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