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Online International Symposium

Growing Plutonium Stockpiles andthe Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant
Reality of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Security in East Asia
DAY 1 : Dec.18 Sat

6:00-8:30PM （JST）

DAY 2 : Dec.19 Sun 9:00-11:30AM （JST）
The Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, currently under construction in Aomori
Prefecture, is scheduled to be completed in 2022. The Japanese government hasadopted a closed nuclear fuel cycle policy to extract plutonium from spent nuclear fueland use it repeatedly: reprocessing is a core part of this cycle. However, the Rokkasho
plant is far from eligible to start commercial operation, for facing a number of serious
problems regarding nuclear non-proliferation, economic rationality, and safety.
Through previous reprocessing activities, Japan has accumulated more than 46
tons of plutonium― enough to make more than 5,000 nuclear warheads―both at homeand abroad. This is because the fast breeder reactor (FBR) cycle was aborted and thepluthermal (plutonium thermal use) program has faced challenges. Accordingly, only
about 1.7 tons of plutonium have been consumed in the last five years.
The Rokkasho reprocessing plant has the capacity to extract 7 to 8 tons ofplutonium per year. Considering the uncertain prospects for plutonium consumption,
Japan has little reason to extract more of it, and starting the operation of the plant canbe justified from neither economic nor nuclear non-proliferation standpoints. In EastAsia, in addition to Japan, South Korea and China are also moving forward withreprocessing projects, and there are growing concerns for the increasing plutonium
stockpile in this region.
Construction of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant started in 1993 yet thecompletion of the plant has been postponed 25 times due to a series of problems suchas insufficient countermeasures against accidents and inability to properly solidify thehigh-level liquid waste generated during reprocessing. The total cost of the project,including the reprocessing and MOX fuel fabrication plant, is reported to be 17 trillion
yen (170 billion dollars) or more.
The problems of Japan’s nuclear fuel cycle policy, long concerned by experts andother parties involved in Japan and abroad, are evidently becoming more serious. We
should thus need to face the reality of the policy and question whether it is necessary
to extract plutonium. Based on this awareness, we will hold a 2-day online international
symposium Growing Plutonium Stockpiles and the Rokkasho Reprocessing
Plant: Reality of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Security in East Asia to discuss thevalidity of starting the commercial operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant as wellas the security risks posed by the increasing plutonium stockpile, from both local andglobal perspectives.

Program
DAY 1: December 18 (Sat) 6:00 - 8:30 PM （JST）“The Reality of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: The British and German
Experiences and the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant”■Presentations
“16 years later’s Re-reviewing the International Critical Review Committee on
the Long-Term Nuclear Program (ICRC) - What has changed and what has notchanged?”, Tetsunari Iida, Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP)

“The Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Aomori Prefecture”, Hiroshi Shikanai, Member of theAomori Prefectural Assembly, former Mayor of Aomori City“The UK Experience: Reprocessing to extract plutonium; creating high levelliquid radioactive waste and contamination”, Paul Brown, Journalist

“The German Experience: Reprocessing-exit and Energy Shift”, Nina Scheer,
Member of Bundestag, Social Democratic Party (SPD)■Plenary Discussion“Questioning the Start of Operation of Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant”

Day 2: December 19 (Sun) 9:00 - 11:30 AM （JST）“Increasing Plutonium and the Security of East Asia”■Presentations
“Security Implications of Plutonium Stockpiles in Asia and Beyond”, Sharon
Squassoni, Research Professor, George Washington University

“Pyroprocessing in South Korea”, Jungmin Kang, Independent Consult, former
Chairperson of South Korea Nuclear Safety and Security Commission

“China's Plutonium Recycling Programs”, Hui Zhang, Senior Research Associate,
Project on Managing the Atom, Harvard University

“Japan's Plutonium Policy: Lost in the Dark”, Tatsujiro Suzuki, Vice Director,
Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition (RECNA), Nagasaki University■Plenary Discussion“How to Control the Horizontal and Vertical Proliferation of Plutonium”

■SpeakersTetsunari Iida
Tetsunari Iida is a leading authority and opinion leader in Japan in the energy
policy field, including nuclear and especially renewable energy policy, andknown as a “Social Innovator”. Studied nuclear engineering master school at
Kyoto University, then worked in the nuclear industry. Stopped the nuclear
career, studied the history and politics of energy transition as well as thesustainable energy policies at Lund University with a lot of field studies.
Founded Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP), a Non-profit andIndependent institute in 2000 to pursue “energy democracy”, that goal should
be sustainable energy society through democratic and bottom-up process, andhas served as chairperson to date.

Hiroshi Shikanai
Hiroshi Shikanai is a Member of the Aomori Prefectural Assembly since 2019.
From 2009 to 2016, he was Mayor of Aomori City. Prior to that, he was a
Member of the Aomori City Assembly (1982-1991) and a Member of the Aomori
Prefectural Assembly (1991-2009). As of now, Hiroshi Shikanai is also a
Member of Construction Committee and a Member of Nuclear and Energy
Special Task Committee of Aomori Prefecture.

Paul Brown
Paul Brown has been a journalist all his working life, including 25 years at The
Guardian in London 16 of them as environment correspondent. He started
reporting on the nuclear industry for the paper in 1983 and has been writing
about it ever since. During his career Paul has won awards for investigativeand environmental journalism and written ten books. He is a Fellow ofWolfson College, Cambridge and honorary fellow of the Royal GeographicalSociety.

Nina Scheer

Dr. Nina Scheer is a lawyer, political scientist and musician; since 2013
member of the German Bundestag and expert for environmental protection,climate and energy policy. Her commitment as a proponent of the realizationof an energy transition is most recently reflected in the Sozialdemokratischer
Energiewende-Appell which she initiated. She has published books on
Renewable Energy and trade policy issues. (Photo by Kai Treffan)

Sharon Squassoni
Sharon Squassoni is Research Professor of the Practice of International
Affairs at the Elliott School, George Washington University in Washington,
DC. She held senior positions at the State Department, Arms Control andDisarmament Agency and the Congressional Research Service before
leaving government service to become a scholar at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace. She led the Proliferation Prevention
Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies from 2010 to2018. She is on the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists, the PIR Center and the Center for Arms Control andNonproliferation. Her research, writing and policy-making has focused on
reducing risks from nuclear energy and weapons for three decades.

Jungmin Kang
Dr. Jungmin Kang: An independent consultant and South Korea’s member of
the International Panel on Fissile Materials. Former chairman of South
Korea’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission in 2018. Dr. Kang was asenior research fellow in the Nuclear Program at Natural Resources DefenseCouncil (NRDC) in 2015-2017. He holds a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering fromTokyo University in Japan and completed his BS and MS in the Nuclear
Engineering Department of South Korea’s Seoul National University.

Hui Zhang
Hui Zhang is a Senior Research Associate at the Project on Managing theAtom in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard
University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Hui Zhang is leading aresearch initiative on China's nuclear policies for the Project on Managing theAtom in the Kennedy School of Government. His researches include
verification techniques of nuclear arms control, the control of fissile material,
nuclear terrorism, China's nuclear policy, nuclear safeguards and nonproliferation, policy of nuclear fuel cycle and reprocessing.

Tatsujiro Suzuki
Born in 1951. Before joining RECNA, he was a Vice Chairman of Japan Atomic
Energy Commission (JAEC) from January 2010 to March 2014. He is amember of Advisory Board of Parliament’s Special Committee on Nuclear
Energy, a Council Member of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World
Affairs, co-chair of International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM) and a Board
member of Asia Pacific Leadership Network for Nuclear Non-Proliferation andDisarmament (APLN). He has a PhD in nuclear engineering from theUniversity of Tokyo.

■Moderator
President of New Diplomcy Initiative (ND), Attorney at Law (Japan/the Stateof New York).After graduating from Waseda University, she joined a NGO,
which included helping out a refugee camp in Tanzania. Since passing theBAR exam in Japan in 2002, she specialized in international human right's
law. After receiving her Master's degree from Colombia University Law
School, she passed the BAR exam in New York State in 2009. In 2012, she
received her second Master's degree in International Relations fromAmerican University in Washington, DC. In the past, she has worked withAmnesty International and Human Right Watch.

＊This symposium is organized with a grant from “act beyond trust” (Abt).

For details, please contact;
info@nd-initiative.org