Japan to Join U.S. Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

Japan plans to work with the U.S. Global Nuclear Energy Partnership aimed at expanding the use of civilian nuclear energy around the world, Kyodo News reported (see GSN, Feb. 7).

Details of the partnership are expected to be worked out soon, sources close to the matter said.

Officials in Tokyo said Japan could contribute to the project by working on technologies to reprocess fuel and for fast-breeder reactors, such as the prototype Monju reactor.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency said that researchers are working to develop wet and dry nuclear fuel reprocessing methods. During wet reprocessing, plutonium is mixed with neptunium and other radioactive elements to make it harder to extract plutonium that could be used in nuclear weapons.

U.S. officials have also approached China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom about the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (Kyodo News, Feb. 8).

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