Nuclear energy is particularly attractive to Japan because it is friendly, both economically and environmentally. Nuclear power plants can produce 1 kWh of electricity for \9 versus \10 for coal- and oil-fired generators. Nor do they produce harmful emissions, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2), culprits suspected in contributing to environmental pollution.

Another attraction is that the supply and price of uranium is relatively stable. Yet it is a finite resource. So the industry and regulators are looking to the next step: the peaceful use of plutonium to meet the energy needs of tomorrow.

URANIUM 238 ABSORBS NEUTRONS and transmutes to fissile plutonium; it can be extracted and then recycled for further use, making it a rare quasi-domestic energy source for Japan. A part of the plutonium thus formed undergoes nuclear fission during operations and generates energy. Although the burn-up varies from fuel to fuel, on average, about 30 percent of the energy generated in reactors is attributed to plutonium.

It can also be used as MOX fuel, uranium and plutonium mixed-oxide fuel, that can be burned in conventional light-water reactors (LWRs). In Japan, a demonstration plan was implemented that calls for using a number of MOX fuel assemblies. Plutonium utilization in LWRs has been implemented since the 1960s in other countries, with numerous results accumulated in France, Germany, Switzerland and elsewhere.

Japan has also developed and implemented the "Monju" fast-breeder reactor (FBR). This reactor generates nuclear power while producing more plutonium than is spent. It has the potential to utilize uranium fuel at much higher levels than conventional nuclear reactors, thus making it a promising energy source for the 21st century.

While plutonium utilization in LWRs and FBR pose engineering and environmental challenges, the Japanese government has sought to address the fear that the plutonium it produces will be used in weapons production. Japan, however, has consis-tently pledged since the 1950s that it would neither manufacture nor maintain nuclear weapons.

JAPAN IS ALSO A full-fledged signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The agency conducts rigorous inspections of nuclear facilities handling uranium and plutonium to prevent these materials from being used for any purposes other than peaceful ones. In Japan, the use of nuclear power is limited to peaceful purposes exclusively, and inspections by the IAEA are readily accepted.

Indeed, both industry and government are confident that plutonium can become a safe and dependable energy resource for years to come, just as uranium has served the energy needs of humanity for the past four decades.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Power Plant