Frequent troubles occurred at fast-breeder reactor ‘Monju’

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Frequent troubles occurred at fast-breeder reactor ‘Monju’

Since the fast-breeder nuclear reactor plant “Monju” (Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture) resumed operation on May 6, frequent problems have been reported.

While the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) has decided to continue operating “Monju” by saying, “No problem,” local people and experts are increasing their criticisms of the agency’s complacent attitude.

On the evening of May 10, a mishandling of control rods stopped “Monju” operations for a while. The operation manual has no instructions on how to handle control rods. “Monju” workers said that they had received no training or instructions about it.

The role of control rods is to put the brakes on “Monju” in case of malfunction. What happened at Monju is the same thing as a person who does not know how to put on the brakes while driving a car.

Failure alerts are being reported everyday.

Up until now, the JAEA made public both minor and major troubles when the alarm went off. The JAEA, however, on May 11 decided to disclose only major troubles when the alert is raised.

Expert in nuclear power engineering Tateno Jun stated, “It really surprises me that an operation manual has no description about control rods handling and workers operate Monju without having enough training and information about their jobs. Because the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan agreed to restart ‘Monju’ operations, the government responsibility is also called into question. If ‘Monju’ operations are continued, it will cause other dangers. The government and relevant organizations must examine the cause.”

- Akahata, May 13, 2010