A Japanese newspaper reported the United States and Japan are preparing to extend a longstanding bilateral nuclear-cooperation agreement, which the U.S. State Department would neither confirm nor deny Monday.
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported Sunday the Japanese and U.S. governments were “making arrangements to enable the automatic extension” of thei agreement. which was signed in 1988 and set to expire in July.
However, unless one of the parties, with six months written notice, tells the other it wants to cancel or renegotiate the deal, the Agreement for Cooperatin Between the Government of Japan and the Government of the United States of America Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy would automatically remain in force.
A State Department spokesperson on Monday said “We are not aware of any intention to terminate or seek renegotiation of the Agreement.”
Asked about the Yomiuri Shimbum story, a spokesperson for the Japanese Embassy in Washington said: “We are aware of this reporting. The Japan-US nuclear energy accord is not only a cornerstone for Japan’s nuclear activities but also critical in light of the Japan-US relationship. The Government of Japan will continue to work closely with the United States including discussion on the future of the nuclear energy accord.”
According to the National Nuclear Security Administration, the State Department’s top technical consultant for these deals, the U.S. had 123-type agreements with more than 20 nations as of January.
The agreement does more or less what its name suggests: pledges Japan and the U.S. to cooperate on peaceful nuclear pursuits. Among other things, the pact limits trade in highly enriched uranium and prescribes minimum physical safeguards for transporting nuclear materials.
One analyst said the U.S. should not allow the agreement to automatically extend unless Japan first agrees to rein in its plutonium production.
“Japan has no credible means of burning the plutonium it plans to produce at Rokkasho reprocessing plant,” James Acton, co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing on Monday. “It’s simply too challenging for Japan to reopen those reactors that it earmarked for plutonium burning.”
Moreover, Acton said, a Japanese facility at Rokkasho that would convert the plutonium into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel for use in commercial power plants is far behind schedule, causing a plutonium-pileup in the island nation. The U.S. should insist that Japan produce no more plutonium until the MOX plant is ready, said Acton.
Finally, Acton said, the U.S. should insist that Japan only produce as much plutonium as it could later burn in nuclear power plants.
