It's an old piece of news (May 9, 2011) which I think should have received a wider coverage in light of the on-going crisis at Fukushima I Nuke Plant (which receives little coverage on its own these days).
Japan and the US want to build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Mongolia, and Mongolia is very eager to join the nuclear power generation club by building the first nuke plant in the country, undeterred by the Fukushima accident.
The reason for the push for the spent fuel storage facility in Mongolia? So that the US-Japan joint ventures that sell nuclear power plants can sell the plants as a package deal that comes with the spent fuel storage, competing with Russians who already offer such a package deal.
Mongolia has faults capable of producing earthquakes of Magnitude 8.
From Reuters (5/9/2011):
TOKYO, May 9 (Reuters) - Japan and the United States plan to jointly build a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Mongolia to serve customers of their nuclear plant exporters, pushing ahead despite Japan's prolonged nuclear crisis, the Mainichi daily said on Monday.
A Trade Ministry official said Japan, U.S. and Mongolia officials, at a meeting shortly before Japan's March 11 earthquake, informally discussed possible construction of a nuclear waste storage facility for countries with nuclear power plants but no spent fuel storage capability of their own.
He said there were no concrete plans at this time but the ministry would consider such a project if Mongolia were interested.
The Mainichi said the facility would allow Japanese and U.S. nuclear plant exporters, which include joint ventures and units of General Electric , Hitachi and Toshiba , to better compete with Russian rivals that offer potential nuclear plant customers spent fuel disposal in a package.
Mongolia plans to have its first nuclear power plant by 2020 and to build nuclear fuel production capacity to tap its rich uranium resources, undeterred by the crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power complex, a senior official at the state-owned MonAtom LLC said in April.
MonAtom represents the Mongolian government in mining and developing the country's uranium resources.
The trade ministry official denied the Mainichi's report that the three countries had originally planned to sign a deal on the spent fuel disposal project in February but it was postponed as Japan's Foreign Ministry opposed the schedule, citing a lack of consensus among Japanese ministries.
The Mainichi said a new date had not been set in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan, which triggered cooling system malfunctions at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and led to radiation leaks into the atmosphere and the sea.
Engineers are still struggling to bring the plant under control. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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6 comments:
The idea of Mongolia running nuclear plants by 2020 is ridiculous. And so is the idea that Mongolia will pick a plant from Japan or the US.
Surely the best locations for spent fuel are the already contaminated areas of the planet? I don't understand why anyone would embark on a new nuclear power program using current fission technology....Oh yes I do, General Electric , Hitachi and Toshiba need to increase shareholder value so in turn they put pressure on the US and Japanese governments who put pressure on the Mongolian people.
Who exactly benefits from this. The Mongolian People? I don't think so.
I suggest that the spent fuel be stored near the headquarters of the company selling the power stations - ideally, close to the homes of their top management. That way, we would have some reasonable assurance as to their safety.
Robbie001 sez:
According to this story in the link below there may be complications to their plans. Nuclear waste isn't transported by air and Mongolia is land locked country the waste would have to travel through other countries over land. Russia isn't going to help the competition and China may not want waste traveling through their country either.
"The deal has been secretly negotiated by the three governments because there are concerns it would face opposition from the Mongolian people as well as its neighbors China and Russia, the Mainichi said."
http://en.tengrinews.kz/environment/1583/
Now that it is contaminated, Northern Japan should be the world's nuclear waste repository. And all those who work with and support nuclear power should be sent there to tend to Fukushima forever and ever, evermore. That is the solution.
They should bury it in the back yard of Tepco President and Japan President .
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