Fukui politicians speak out against British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL)
"There is no ethics education at BNFL." Kansai Electric testimony to Fukui Prefecture, Japan, September 29th, 1999. The Pacific Pintail, due to arrive next Friday in the nuclear power plant port of Takahama, is likely to contain plutonium fuel which has not been properly inspected by the British manufacturers BNFL , at Sellafield nuclear site in the north of England - Greenpeace and Green Action stated today. New research submitted last night by Professor Hidiyuki Koyama, of Osaka Prefectural University, to Fukui Prefectural Assembly politicians suggests that a batch of fuel (the so-called P824) has not been manually inspected by BNFL workers, according to the data so far made available by Kansai Electric and BNFL (1). On September 14th, the Independent newspaper (UK) reported that inspection data for plutonium fuel produced by BNFL had been falsified by workers probably seeking to avoid time delay in production.
The latest revelation comes at a time of increasing political opposition to the loading of plutonium MOX fuel in the Takahama-4 reactor. Last night, following a briefing from the Japanese government's Ministry of Trade and Industry, members of the Fukui Prefecture debated the BNFL data scandal and the assurances given by Kansai Electric that there is nothing wrong with the plutonium fuel about to arrive from England.
Today's Fukui newspaper headlines read "Takahama Unit 4 MOX Fuel: Can the Data be Believed? Energy Agency and Kansai Electric Showered by Prefectural Legislator Doubt" (Fukui Shimbun). Asahi reports: "Legislature says, 'We're Sick of This' to Kansai Electric Apology". In response to Kansai Electric, stating that they believed the worker who testified that he didn't falsify the data for the Takahama fuel lot (which had a higher frequency of same numbers than the previous lot), legislator Tokuo Yamane pointed out: "We can't understand why Kansai Electric finds this convincing. This is tantamount to saying 'Well, just believe us." (Fukui Shimbun).
To legislator Ishibashi's question, 'Do you consider this problem to be at the BNFL corporate level', Kansai Electric replied, 'There is no ethics education [at BNFL]. Almost no one there knows about the data falsification incident that occurred last year with the MOX fuel cask. At least three individuals were involved in the data fabrication and conducted this fabrication for some time, therefore this involves supervisory responsibility.' To which Kansai Electric replied, "This is the individual responsibility of the inspectors." (Fukui Shimbun) Confidence in BNFL' s assurances that the Takahama-4 plutonium is not affected by the scandal was further shattered when it was revealed that BNFL knew about the data falsification already on August 20th, a full three weeks before BNFL informed Kansai Electric. Originally, when the scandal first broke on September 14, it was reported that BNFL only were aware of the problem around September 7 or 8th.
"Politicians have good reasons to suspect BNFL of prioritising profit over nuclear safety, that is their track record over decades. BNFL probably had no intention of ever releasing their data to their Japanese clients, and only because of being exposed in the press did they try to come clean. Assurances from BNFL that none of the plutonium is tainted by this scandal is wholly unconvincing. They are finished in Japan", said Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International.
After a barrage of criticism, Kansai Electric has finally agreed to release all data relating to pellet size analysis conducted by BNFL during the production of plutonium fuel for the Takahama-4 reactor.
"The decision by Kansai Electric to release all pellet size data to the Prefecture is an important first step in allowing the people of Fukui to see what the real problems of plutonium fuel are. But this is only the beginning, and there needs to be a much more open public debate on the safety issues around plutonium MOX fuel in Japanese reactors," said Aileen Myoko Smith of anti-nuclear group Green Action in Kyoto.
Notes to editors:
(1) The research on P824 was conducted by Professor Hidiyuki Koyama, of Osaka Prefectural University, for the Osaka Citizens Against Mihama, Oi, Takahama Nuclear Reactors, September 28th, 1999.
(2) One politician stated 'Can the quality control data for the Takahama Unit 4 MOX fuel really be trusted" Legislator Yuji Okuyama asked, "If data is falsified this time the way it was done for the MOX fuel casks where data were fabricated instead of copied, this investigation would not have been able to reveal that." To that Nuclear Safety Commissioner Fujitomi replied, "It's easy to copy data but it's considered difficult to fabricate it." (Fukui Shimbun, September 29th).
