From: jcliu@four-lab4.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Liu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Greenpeace
Date: 20 Nov 1992 23:44:22 GMT
Organization: UC Berkeley Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
NNTP-Posting-Host: four-lab4.berkeley.edu
Keywords: shinpainaide kudasai

In article <1992Nov20.012126.7986@rkna50.riken.go.jp>
hughes@rkna50.riken.go.jp (Martin Hughes) writes concerning Pu shipment:

>Because (a) it is one of the more (note, I do not say most) 
>dangereous substances known to man, and any mid-ocean accident
>could result in thousands + of deaths, plus considerable pollution. 
>(b) despite the fact that the
>plutonium being shipped is not of weapons grade, it could, if
>hi-jacked, be made into such - especially by certain extreme 
> governments. (c) Plutonium is used to fuel fast-breeder
>reactors.  As far as I am aware, most other countries with a fast-
>breeder Program have dropped it, due to  safety factors (U.S, France,
>U.K.).  (d) It has to be said that Japans existing nuclear power
>program has proved to be less than 100% safe.  I understand that
>an accident with a fast-breeder type reactor would be a lot more
>serious than with a conventional nuclear reactor.
>I could name other reasons, but for the moment, these will
>suffice, I think.
 
and also in article <Bxz8Fy.Ito@world.std.com> cmr@world.std.com 
(Charles M Richmond) writes:

>........... A person can be pro-nuclear energy and still be against this
>transfer by ship with one 3 gun escort cutter , without even considering
>the normal hazards of the oceans.  Remember this is not one shipment, it is
>many, the watchfulness and carefulness will only decrease with each success.

I have to admit that the nuclear industry gets more complacent as time
passes by and every decade, there seems to to be a wake up call that
reminds us that we are human and prone to err.  

However, to debate (or flame ;-)) Mr. Hughes's statements:

(a) Even if the ship sank, the casket is really tough and well designed.
The designers hurl these things over sheer high cliffs, ram them against
walls using rocket sleds, etc.

(b) Hi-jacking means you need to sneek up on the ship. And the only way
is use a fast quiet sub.  But then the terrorist(s) will have to
deal with the US navy sub(s).

(c) Fast breeder programs have difficulty passing the rule of "No
positive void coefficients" and they have problems with reliable molten
sodium to water heat exchangers.  But breeding or high conversion of
U-238 to Pu-239 can be achieved in LWR's (i.e. "slow" reactors) using
skewed thermal neutron flux as opposed to "fast" neutron flux.  Pu can
also be used as mixed-oxide fuel.  France has used MOX for 8 to 10 years.

(d) Incorrect.  Japan has never exposed it's public to radioactivity 
releases due to reactor accidents.  They have had operational incidents
which have led to scrams and emergency core cooling system activation,
but the safety systems worked as designed.

Because of the cost of electricity, the reason why unplanned shutdowns
are bad us because a utility loses the earning potential of about $1.5 million
per day for each 1GWe plant that's not up and running.

Shinpainaide kudasai.

Jaa, James
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