Japan 'loses' 206kg of plutonium

The Financial Times ^ | January 28, 2003 | Bayan Rahman

[MadIvan]

Japan on Tuesday admitted that 206kg of its plutonium - enough to make about 25 nuclear bombs - is unaccounted for.

Government scientists said that 6,890kg of plutonium had been extracted since 1977 from spent nuclear fuel at a processing plant about 120km north east of Tokyo. But that is 3 per cent short of the amount the plant was estimated to have produced.

About 5kg to 8kg of plutonium are needed to make a 20-kiloton atomic bomb similar to the one that destroyed Nagasaki in 1945.

Experts said the missing amount was surprisingly large.

There is normally a margin of error of 1 per cent or less when measuring liquid plutonium, which can dissolve into other elements.

Japan's admission comes at a time of acute sensitivity because of the threat of nuclear proliferation in north-east Asia following North Korea's revival of its mothballed nuclear programme.

However, there is no evidence that North Korea was linked to the missing plutonium even though it is known to smuggle goods in and out of Japan.

"This is an unusually large amount of plutonium to be unaccounted for, which makes me uncomfortable, although I think it's highly unlikely that it was stolen," said Tatsujiro Suzuki, senior research scientist at the Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry.

The science ministry, which reported the discrepancy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), dismissed the idea that the plutonium had been stolen. It said about 90kg was probably diluted into waste-water and about 30kg probably dissolved into other elements.

It admitted it was baffled by the remaining 86kg but said initial output projections may have been too high and the plutonium may not have been produced.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, said: "The Agency [is] confident that no nuclear material has been diverted from the facility."

The IAEA, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, has urged Japan to strengthen its procedures for measuring nuclear material since it first noted discrepancies in 1998.

[MadIvan]

Not that you should panic or anything...

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Tree of Liberty]

I think it's more likely that they've use the material to make their own nuclear weapons.

[mhking]

!!!???!!!???!!!!

[Centurion2000]

oops ....

[MadIvan]

I think it's more likely that they've use the material to make their own nuclear weapons.

I certainly hope so.

Regards, Ivan

[Mo1]

Okkkkkkkkkkkkk ... How does one just lose that much plutonium ??

[DoughtyOne]

Damn, it was here a minute ago. I walked through the front door, through the living room down the hall to the restroom. When I came out it was gone.

I've never understood how a person loses this stuff?

[areafiftyone]

Quick click off the light and see if you glow!

[MadIvan]

Okkkkkkkkkkkkk ... How does one just lose that much plutonium ??

Sounds like they're going for the Scott Ritter excuse - "an accounting error".

Regards, Ivan

[Poohbah]

OK. Shintaro, check behind the director's futon. Yoshi, you look in the fridge. And Noburo, go check out in the employee locker room--you know how Akira is SUCH a practical joker...

[Argus]

"This is an unusually large amount of plutonium to be unaccounted for, which makes me uncomfortable, although I think it's highly unlikely that it was stolen," said Tatsujiro Suzuki

Has anyone looked under the sofa cushions?

[r9etb]

Not that you should panic or anything...

What convenient timing, coming as it does on last week's statement about how Japan will defend itself if NK so much as begins to fuel its missiles.

This week, we learn that Japan owns seven metric tons of plutonium -- which is a loud reminder that they have everything necessary to construct nuclear weapons.

A cynic might think that there's not really any missing plutonium at all, and that the announcement serves to make a different point.

[weikel]

Agree.

[chance33_98]

Wonder how much they sold it for.

[anobjectivist]

Uhhh...isn't there also an instance of control-rod material being stolen from russia recently?

Who has the underground nuclear reactor with weapons-grade material now?

[prairiebreeze]

*Okkkkkkkkkkkkk ... How does one just lose that much plutonium ??*

My dog ate it???

[concerned about politics]

I think it's more likely that they've use the material to make their own nuclear weapons.

Yeh. They have to deal with N. Korea. Can't blame them if that's what they did.

[Willie Green]

I certainly hope so.

They probably just lost track of how much it took to exterminate Godzilla.
Things were pretty hectic back then.
Expediency demanded that they cut through a lot of red tape.

[Poohbah]

Wonder how much they sold it for.

Sell it? Heck, no...it was an "interagency transfer" to the JSDF.