US & UK DU turns up in Japan

Yomiuri Shimbun | November 10, 2004

A metal factory owner who found depleted uranium (DU) in imported scrap was asked to pay more than 220,000 yen when he asked the Education, Science and Technology Ministry to dispose of the hazardous material for him, The Yomiuri Shimbun learned Wednesday.

The factory owner has refused to pay, leaving 40 kilograms of the material suspected as causing serious health problems, including cancer and kidney ailments, improperly stored.

The factory owner said two lumps of DU, weighing 10 kilograms and 30 kilograms, were found among 16 tons of scrap metal recently imported from the United States to produce aluminum alloy.

The 1957 Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law stipulates the three nuclear elements of uranium, thorium and plutonium can be transferred only between businesses licensed to handle the materials. The law fails to accommodate instances in which operators such as the Hyogo Prefecture factory unintentionally come into possession of the radioactive elements.

The factory owner correctly reported finding the hazardous material to the ministry. But the ministry said it had to comply with the law by instructing him to obtain a license to handle the material--a procedure that requires a 227,200 yen application fee.

This shortcoming of the nuclear regulation law was pointed out at least five years ago, but the ministry has failed to plug this oversight.

In 2000, the then Science and Technology Agency said it would enhance the regulations on nuclear material in response to a string of cases in which hazardous materials were found across the country.

In one highly publicized case that year, a small amount of monazite--a mineral that is a phosphate of thorium--was found in a package sent to the Prime Minister's Office.

The agency, which was later merged into the Education, Science and Technology Ministry, said that year it was considering a range of measures in response to the incident, including a nationwide search for nuclear materials held at unlicensed facilities and creating a scheme to accept unwanted radioactive material.

But none of those measures have been implemented. The ministry now says it has yet to decide where to store unneeded nuclear materials because such a plan would inevitably be opposed by neighboring residents.

Last modified November 17, 2005