See it here: 20th anniversary re-release of an important document on illegal reprocessing cooperation between the US and Japan.
“The Unlawful Plutonium Alliance – Japan’s Supergrade Plutonium and the Role of the United States”
Given the enduring proliferation implications of reprocessing to obtain weapon-usable plutonium, this report is still worth a read. Revelation of illegal cooperation between the U.S. Department of Energy under Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary garnered major news and seemed to have, at least for a while, inhibited the transfer of “sensitive nuclear technology” (SNT) – some of which was developed at the Savannah River Site – from the U.S. to Japan. Unfortunately, since the report was issued Japan has continued its plutonium stockpiling program but at least the future of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant and Monju breeder reactor are in serious doubt. (For the “The Current Situation of Plutonium Management in Japan,” dated September 11, 2013, by Japan’s Atomic Energy Commission, and how Japan has blatantly violated its “no surplus plutonium” pledge click here.)
“The Unlawful Plutonium Alliance – Japan’s Supergrade Plutonium and the Role of the United States”
by Shaun Burnie & Tom Clements, Greenpeace International, September 1994
The history about the report and illegal export of SNT by the US DOE was documented in the US Congressional Record by Senator John Glenn:
[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 63 (Wednesday, April 5, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5193-S5207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CREC-1995-04-05/html/CREC-1995-04-05-pt1-PgS5193.htm
…
Last September, the international environmental group, Greenpeace,
prepared a lengthy analysis of the transfers of United States nuclear
reprocessing technology to Japan. This study, titled “The Unlawful
Plutonium Alliance: Japan’s Supergrade Plutonium and the Role of the
United States,” makes for interesting reading. It presents
considerable evidence of United States cooperation with Japan in the
areas of plutonium breeder reactors and nuclear fuel reprocessing.
On September 8, 1994, the United States Department of Energy promised
a comprehensive review of the report and further stated that it was
“phasing out collaborative research efforts with Japan on plutonium
reprocessing and development of breeder reactor technology.”
The same day, the New York Times quoted a Department of Energy
spokesman as saying that this cooperation was “* * * a remnant of the
last administration.”
Later, on September 23, Greenpeace was joined by the Natural
Resources Defense Council and the Nuclear Control Institute in
demanding several steps to restore United States-Japan nuclear
cooperation to the constraints of United States law.
Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the
Record a letter by these organizations to Energy Secretary Hazel
O’Leary.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record…
SRS Watch thanks Senator Glenn for preserving this important bit of non-proliferation history.
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