Press Release
April 19, 2010

Citizens Protest the Planned Restart of the Monju Fast Breeder Reactor

On Sunday April 18, over 500 citizens from Fukui Prefecture and throughout Japan converged on the Shiraki Kaigan beach in front of Japan's Monju Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor to protest its planned restart. The protestors marched to the gate of Monju, where they agreed to send the letter of protest (see below) to Monju's owner, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA).

Monju is located in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture. It has been closed down since a sodium leak and fire in December 1995. JAEA wanted to restart the reactor by March 31 (the end of the 2009 fiscal year), but that schedule has slipped. The central government has given the go ahead to restart the reactor. Now only the approval of Fukui Prefecture remains.

Sponsors
Close Monju! National Gathering Coordinating Committee
Fukui Prefecture Citizens Against Nuclear Power
Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs (Gensuikin)
Stop The Monju
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
National Network Against Nuclear Energy

Contacts
Gensuikin: 03-5289-8224
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center: 03-3357-3800
Fukui Center for Peace, Environment and Human Rights: 0776-21-5321 (Japanese only)

Toshio Okazaki (President)
Yuichi Hayase (Senior Director-General, Tsuruga Head Office)
Japan Atomic Energy Agency

We Protest the Futile, Unreasonable and Reckless Restart of Monju

The restart of the Monju Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor is causing great anxiety for local residents and citizens further afield. Considering Japan Atomic Energy Agency's (JAEA) response to date, many residents believe that unimaginable accidents await them if Monju is restarted. They are afraid that a terrible disaster will befall them. We strongly protest your organization's lack of effort to respond to residents' concerns and its attitude of forging ahead with restart, placing top priority on starting Monju within the fiscal year.

There is no precedent for restarting a reactor that has been shut down for 14 years, let alone a fast breeder reactor that is still under development and was shut down due to accident. To what extent can you say that the integrity of the huge length of piping in Monju's primary and secondary systems has been checked with certainty? The sloppy quality control system is deeply entrenched. This was shown by false alarms caused by mistakes in installing sodium leak detectors that date from the original construction of the plant, and by untreated corrosion of the external exhaust duct. Despite the comprehensive safety checks that had been conducted since the accident, it became clear that these items had not in fact been checked. It is doubtful whether the huge quantity of equipment has been adequately checked. Trust in the government, which has supervisory responsibility, is rock bottom.

As a result of the seismic review, your organization has admitted the existence of two active faults directly under Monju, the Shiraki-Nyu Fault and the C Fault, although when the plant was first built your organization denied the existence of these faults. However, in regard to the altered assessment, it shows no sign of remorse for its past errors, and it has not responded to questions submitted by residents about its seismic assessment.

It was revealed that JAEA would not necessarily stop the reactor during an earthquake, even if there were a sodium leak, so we cannot help but be deeply concerned that another accident will occur. The seismic resistance assessment should be reconsidered once again.

About half a century has passed since the research and development for Monju. A total of 2 trillion yen has been spent on fast breeder reactor development. Monju generated electricity for just one hour, but 900 billion yen worth of taxpayers' money has been poured into the project. There have been no benefits in return for these costs. Please stop charging ahead with this folly.

We strongly protest the restart of Monju and demand that it be shut down permanently.

Adopted unanimously by the Oppose Monju Restart! On Location Protest
April 18, 2010

Protest Coordinating Committee
Fukui Prefecture Citizens Against Nuclear Power
Japan Congress Against A- and H-Bombs (Gensuikin)
Stop The Monju
Citizens' Nuclear Information Center
National Network Against Nuclear Energy

Resources About Monju
1. Appeal by Japanese scientist against the restart of Monju (March 11, 2010)

2. Article: Restarting Monju - Like Playing Russian Roulette

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