The efforts to build a closed fuel cycle by extracting and reusing plutonium produced in Japan's nuclear power plants have also been 21)plagued by troubles. The advanced Monju 22)fast-breeder reactor was just beginning to operate in 1995 when the liquid 23)sodium coolant it used leaked and led to a fire. The reactor only reopened a year ago. Soon afterward, a three-ton machine involved in refueling the reactor got jammed in the reactor 24)vessel, forcing another shutdown. It has yet to be removed. And the opening of the Rokkasho facility itself—which extracts plutonium from spent power reactor fuel, and is supposed to 25)glassify radioactive waste and produce plutonium fuel for Japanese nuclear power reactors—has been repeatedly delayed, most recently by problems with the waste process. Reviewing the situation before the Fukushima tragedy, Japanese officials said that given a fresh chance, reprocessing and fast reactors might make little sense. But with billions of dollars already expended, it also made little sense to abandon their investments altogether.
Japan must first deal with the crisis at the Fukushima plants, and its nuclear workers have demonstrated incredible personal heroism in doing so. It then must institute measures to limit future radiation exposure, including the closure of many of the six Fukushima Daiichi reactors. But in the longer term, the nation—as well as others—may want to think long and hard about whether its 26)headlong pursuit of nuclear energy is indeed making it more secure. As the memories of 1979 Three Mile Island and 1986 Chernobyl accidents have faded and the dangers of global warming and reliance on the highly 27)volatile Middle East have increased, nuclear energy has appeared to be an increasingly attractive option. Many newfound 28)proponents of nuclear energy seem to have forgotten that nuclear power is more than a way of boiling water. It attempts to transform the energy that has powered the world's most dangerous weapons into something 29)benign. That is a 30)tall order for any society, even one as 31)sophisticated and technically proficient as Japan.