CNIC has been actively opposing two nuclear related bills that were submitted to the Diet earlier this year. The bad news is that both were passed on unlucky Friday 13th.
This first of these bills was a bill to amend the Law for the Regulation of Nuclear Source Material, Nuclear Fuel Material and Reactors. It permits the 'clearance' of some radioactive waste, so that it can be disposed of as non-radioactive waste.
The second was a bill for a new law to shift to consumers the costs of dismantling and disposing of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and to make the tax system more favorable to electric power companies.
As argued in previous articles, both these bills were an essential preliminary measure to make it possible to operate the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant.
The tax bill is now a done deal and there isn't much we can do to stop it, other than to stop Rokkasho itself. That campaign is continuing as vigorously as ever, of course.
Regarding the clearance of radioactive waste, the new system won't lead to immediate releases of radioactive waste. The first stage will be recycling of this cleared radioactive waste within the nuclear power plants themselves. Beyond that, our best hope is to build public opposition to the obviously bad idea of releasing radioactive waste into the environment, from whence, through all sorts of routes, will find its way into our daily lives.
Click here for more information on these two bills.
Philip White
International Liaison Officer
