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.

[duk]

why is japan producing this material in the first place?
What do they do with all that plutonium?

[Frank_Discussion]

Okkkkkkkkkkkkk

The actual sound of a BARF ALERT!! (And it was the sound I made when I read the headline...)

[ImaGraftedBranch]

talk about misunderestimating the half-life of plutonium...

[MadIvan]

why is japan producing this material in the first place?

I believe it's a by-product of their electricity generation.

What do they do with all that plutonium?

Search me.

Regards, Ivan

[Poohbah]

why is japan producing this material in the first place? What do they do with all that plutonium?

They make electricity. It powers a breeder reactor.

[Snowy]

Relax. Just have them retrace their steps... It has to be somewhere. It didn't just 'disappear'....

[Dane]

I always read from the tour books that the North Korean mafia are the power behind the pacinko parlors(pacinko machines are a sort of ball bearing slot machine and the parlors are the places where the pacinko machines can be found in every corner in any Japanese city)

When I was in Japan they were everywhere, and supposedly people who collected the tubs of ball bearings are supposed to "claim" their prize(i.e stuffed bears and the sort), but go behind the builing and there is a shack where people trade in their "stuffed bears" for cash(i.e basically a "fence operation").

[Centurion2000]

After reading this again and thinking about it. thye just sent a VERY loud message to people listening. They have nukes.

Some chinese bowels probably just loosened considerably.

[L,TOWM]

I think the DPRK has figured out that much, and that was the intent of this press release. I'd bet the next 'Dong' seen over Japan will result in a publicly tested Rising (fake) Sun.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Lets see, we were the first ones to use nukes, when we nuked Japan, and now they come up with missing plutonium....Hmmm...And they don't have a clue? LOL!

[Preech1]

"Rook...out in Tokyo Bay...it's... GOJIRA!!!!" Aieeeeee!

[Poohbah]

North Korean mafia?

Absolutely not! Japan refuses to allow cheap foreign labor to undercut its domestic criminal class!

[Billthedrill]

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

...such as "Ah, honorable Kim-san, prease to kiss honorable buttocks sayonara..."?

[bobi]

Mr Mad Ivan

I have seen your posts many times and to your own right you are a British patriot.

But think twice before hoping that Japan or any other nation has made its own nuclear weapons no matter how friendly they seem.

Because if one of those goes off in a major city there will be no metal plate that will say Made in ....... by the Mitsubishi Corporation.

[Dead Dog]

Exaclty, like 'Oops we were moving and put put them in the wrong box, it must be over there in the "package" marked "Physics"'.

[duk]

I thought the rods were uranium and that a special refinement process had to take place to extract the plutonium. Is it easier to refine these spent rods and then store them? Plutonium is very dangerous even in small amounts, tons of it on a small island with a history of earthquakes would seem a disproportionate risk.

just a carpenters point of view

[r9etb]

ping....

[PoorMuttly]

Well, if Mohamed is confident, that's good enough for us.

I'll check under the birdbath anyway.

[Capt. Tom]

Forget nuclear -This is dirty bomb material. Perfect for a little blast on Wall St. - tom

[AdamSelene235]

Happily plutonium takes brains to detonate.

Uranium-235 is hard to make but easy to detonate while plutonium is the opposite: easy to make but hard to detonate.