--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 15
EDITORIAL: Monju has run its course and should now be scrapped
(社説)もんじゅ 政府は廃炉を決断せよ
 
The government is assessing what to do about the Monju prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor, with one option being to decommission the trouble-prone facility.
高速増殖原型炉「もんじゅ」(福井県)について、政府が廃炉も含めた検討に入った。

It should decide swiftly to scrap the experimental reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture.
速やかに廃炉を決断すべきだ。

Monju has remained mostly idle for the past two decades or so. Restarting it would be hugely expensive. Putting the necessary safety measures in place would require an outlay of hundreds of billions of yen. The obvious solution is staring the government in the face.
もんじゅはこの20年余り、ほとんど運転できていない。安全対策には数千億円が必要とされ、仮に運転にこぎつけても高くつく。おのずと結論は出るはずだ。

Monju was designed to underpin a nuclear fuel recycling program in which plutonium extracted from reprocessed spent nuclear fuel is burned in a fast-breeder reactor. The ability to generate more fissile material than is consumed was regarded as “dream” technology.
使用済みの核燃料を再処理してプルトニウムを取り出し、それを燃やすのが核燃料サイクルだ。その中核に位置づけられ、使った以上のプルトニウムを得られる高速増殖炉は「夢の原子炉」とも呼ばれた。

But Monju has been mostly offline since a sodium coolant leak accident in 1995.
だが、もんじゅは1995年に冷却材のナトリウムが漏れる事故を起こし、その後はほぼ止まったままだ。

In 2012, it was revealed that safety maintenance checks had missed about 10,000 pieces of equipment. In response, the Nuclear Regulation Authority halted preparations to bring the reactor back online. It urged the science and technology minister last November to find a new operator for the reactor in place of the government-backed Japan Atomic Energy Agency.
2012年には約1万点もの機器の点検漏れが発覚。原子力規制委員会は運転再開準備を禁じ、昨年11月、現在の日本原子力研究開発機構に代わる運営主体を探すよう、所管の文部科学相に勧告した。

The science and technology ministry has apparently been weighing plans to separate the Monju-related section from the agency and put the unit in charge of maintenance and management of the reactor.
But that would do nothing but change the name of the operator. No wonder this idea has been met with skepticism and criticism within the government.
文科省は、機構からもんじゅに関わる部門を分離して保守・管理を担わせる案を探ってきたようだが、そんな看板の掛け替えは許されない。政府内で疑問や批判が出たのは当然だ。

No one in the electric power industry, which would be the primary beneficiary of the fast-breeder reactor if it ever went into practical use, is calling for early development of the technology.
高速増殖炉については、実用化後の利用者と目される電力業界に開発を急ぐ声は聞かれない。

That’s not surprising, given that producing the necessary fuel and developing the technology to use sodium would require a huge investment in time and money.
燃料製造に手間がかかり、ナトリウムを使う技術の確立も必要で、コストがかかる。

The power industry, meanwhile, has been pushing to restart ordinary nuclear reactors, partly because uranium is now easily available and cheap.
一方、電力業界が再稼働を急ぐ通常の原発は、燃料のウランの需給が緩んでおり、価格は安い。

With liberalization of the power market making their business environment much harsher, the private-sector companies have every reason to be reluctant to cheer for the Monju program.
電力自由化で経営環境が厳しさを増すなか、民間企業が拒否反応を示すのは自然な流れだ。

The ministry appears to be trying to persuade the electric utilities and related manufacturers to become part of the new Monju operator. But it has been a hard sell.
文科省は新たな運営主体に電力業界や関連メーカーを引き込みたいようだが、難航している。

More than 1 trillion yen ($9.7 billion) has been poured into the development and operation of Monju.
もんじゅにはこれまで、1兆円以上の事業費が投じられてきた。

The power industry and other private-sector players provided around 140 billion yen to cover a portion of the construction costs. But the rest of the funding for the beleaguered program has come from the pockets of taxpayers.
建設費の一部、約1400億円は電力業界など民間からの拠出金だが、残りは税金だ。

The fast-breeder reactor requires 20 billion yen in annual maintenance costs. The government can hardly expect to win public support for such a massive drain in taxpayer money when there is little prospect of the technology coming into practical use.
今も毎年約200億円の維持費がかかっている。実用化とその後の利用のめどが立たないまま、巨額の税金を使い続けることに国民の支持は得られまい。

Research on fast reactor technology and radioactive waste can be accomplished--as long as safety is ensured--by using other existing facilities like the Joyo experimental fast reactor in Ibaraki Prefecture.
高速炉や放射性廃棄物の研究なら、安全確保を前提に実験炉「常陽」(茨城県)などですればよい。

It is difficult to secure sufficient human resources for a plan that doesn’t seem to have a viable future. There are also concerns about technology and information management and accident prevention efforts for Monju.
将来の見通しを欠く計画に人材を確保することは難しく、技術や情報の管理、事故防止にも不安がつきまとう。

The troubled history of Monju clearly argues against keeping the program alive.
もんじゅのこれまでの歩みがそれを示していないか。

The establishment of a nuclear fuel recycling program itself is becoming a dead letter, and the government needs to reconsider this policy goal from scratch.
核燃料サイクル自体が時代遅れの夢になりつつあり、白紙からの再検討を迫られている。

As for Monju, there is no doubt that decommissioning the reactor is the only rational choice.
もんじゅについては、廃炉が唯一の合理的な選択肢である。

これより先はプライベートモードに設定されています。閲覧するには許可ユーザーでログインが必要です。