34 K. HASEGAWA
reactors in China and the USA from 2006 to 2015. The Fukushima accident dealt the final blow to the nuclear renaissance, which was already
under dark clouds before 2010.
Handling Spent Nuclear Fuel
and Three Endemic Problems
The greatest dilemma facing every country relying on nuclear power
is how to finally dispose of spent nuclear fuel. The extreme difficulties of spent-fuel disposal prompted a move away from nuclear energy
in the USA and Europe. Japan has stuck to a closed nuclear fuel cycle
policy under which all spent fuel is reprocessed and high-level radioactive waste is stored for cooling over a period of thirty to fifty years in a
vitrified form and eventually disposed of by deep burial in a geological
formation 300–700 meters below ground. Handling high-level radioactive waste is extremely cumbersome and dangerous due to extremely high
levels of radioactivity, large amounts of heat generation, high toxicity,
very long half-lives, and the presence of a wide variety of elements. It
needs to be isolated from the human living environment for approximately 100,000 years, and hence requires extremely long-term storage
facilities. Every nuclear power generating country agonizes over the location of final disposal sites. Only Finland has started construction, since
2012, of a final spent nuclear fuel repository at Onkalo. Sweden also
decided the place for its repository site in June 2009 (Hasegawa 2015,
p. 48).
Japan’s difficulties disposing of spent nuclear fuel are compounded
by three other endemic problems. First, it is questionable as to whether
there are any suitable sites for final disposal in such an earthquake-prone
country, as we were reminded on 3.11, 2011, with interlaced active fault
lines, a limited land area, high population density, and many subterranean
water veins. In July 2017, the government published the “Nationwide
Map of Scientific Features for Geological Disposal,” which indicates that
about 30% of the Japanese Archipelago is suitable on scientific grounds for
final disposal of high-level radioactive waste outside of a radius of 15 km
from volcanoes, and which is not located close to any active faults (Agency
for Natural Resources and Energy 2017). This map shows some sites
are favorable from the viewpoint of waste transportation also. However,
the next step forward, which is to start researching suitable sites, is not
reactors in China and the USA from 2006 to 2015. The Fukushima accident dealt the final blow to the nuclear renaissance, which was already
under dark clouds before 2010.
Handling Spent Nuclear Fuel
and Three Endemic Problems
The greatest dilemma facing every country relying on nuclear power
is how to finally dispose of spent nuclear fuel. The extreme difficulties of spent-fuel disposal prompted a move away from nuclear energy
in the USA and Europe. Japan has stuck to a closed nuclear fuel cycle
policy under which all spent fuel is reprocessed and high-level radioactive waste is stored for cooling over a period of thirty to fifty years in a
vitrified form and eventually disposed of by deep burial in a geological
formation 300–700 meters below ground. Handling high-level radioactive waste is extremely cumbersome and dangerous due to extremely high
levels of radioactivity, large amounts of heat generation, high toxicity,
very long half-lives, and the presence of a wide variety of elements. It
needs to be isolated from the human living environment for approximately 100,000 years, and hence requires extremely long-term storage
facilities. Every nuclear power generating country agonizes over the location of final disposal sites. Only Finland has started construction, since
2012, of a final spent nuclear fuel repository at Onkalo. Sweden also
decided the place for its repository site in June 2009 (Hasegawa 2015,
p. 48).
Japan’s difficulties disposing of spent nuclear fuel are compounded
by three other endemic problems. First, it is questionable as to whether
there are any suitable sites for final disposal in such an earthquake-prone
country, as we were reminded on 3.11, 2011, with interlaced active fault
lines, a limited land area, high population density, and many subterranean
water veins. In July 2017, the government published the “Nationwide
Map of Scientific Features for Geological Disposal,” which indicates that
about 30% of the Japanese Archipelago is suitable on scientific grounds for
final disposal of high-level radioactive waste outside of a radius of 15 km
from volcanoes, and which is not located close to any active faults (Agency
for Natural Resources and Energy 2017). This map shows some sites
are favorable from the viewpoint of waste transportation also. However,
the next step forward, which is to start researching suitable sites, is not