Japan's Nuclear Plan Unsettles U.S. [View all]

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Source: Wall Street Journal

Japan is preparing to start up a massive nuclear-fuel reprocessing plant over the objections of the Obama administration, which fears the move may stoke a broader race for nuclear technologies and even weapons in North Asia and the Middle East.

The Rokkasho reprocessing facility, based in Japan's northern Aomori prefecture, is capable of producing nine tons of weapons-usable plutonium annually, said Japanese officials and nuclear-industry experts, enough to build as many as 2,000 bombs, although Japanese officials say their program is civilian.

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The Obama administration widely believes Rokkasho had been mothballed as a result of these delays, said U.S. officials who have worked on nuclear policy. This belief was further cemented by the Fukushima accident and Tokyo's subsequent announcement that it was drastically scaling back its nuclear-power program.

"For the Obama administration…there wasn't any real need to focus on (Rokkasho)," said Gary Samore, who oversaw nuclear-proliferation issues in the White House during President Barack Obama's first term.

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Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324582004578456943867189804.html