China’s Plans to Recycle Nuclear Fuel Raise Concerns

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Source: Wall Street Journal

China’s plans to process spent nuclear fuel into plutonium that could be used in weapons is drawing concern from the U.S. that Beijing is heightening the risk of nuclear proliferation.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, in Beijing for talks, said Thursday that China’s plans to build a nuclear-recycling facility present challenges to global efforts to control the spread of potentially dangerous materials.

“We don’t support large-scale reprocessing,” Mr. Moniz told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. He said China’s recent announcements that it would press ahead with building the country’s first such commercial-scale facility “certainly isn’t a positive in terms of nonproliferation.”

Mr. Moniz’s comments marked a rare public expression by the Obama administration of concern over China’s reprocessing plans. The differences, which the governments have discussed privately, are being aired ahead of a visit by President Xi Jinping to Washington this month for a summit with President Barack Obama and other world leaders on nuclear security.

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Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-plans-to-recycle-nuclear-fuel-raise-concerns-1458228504

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1. Another US official criticizes E Asia plans for nuclear reprocessing

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/US-official-criticizes-E-Asia-plans-for-nuclear-6902654.php

US official criticizes E Asia plans for nuclear reprocessing

Matthew Pennington, Associated Press

Updated 3:10 pm, Thursday, March 17, 2016

A senior U.S. official came out strongly Thursday against major powers in East Asia pursuing nuclear reprocessing that nonproliferation experts warn could lead to spiraling quantities of weapons-usable material in a tense region.

Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel "has little if any economic justification" and raises concerns about nuclear security and nonproliferation.

The administration appears to be elevating its public expressions of concern over plans by Japan and China to produce plutonium for energy generation — a technology that South Korea also aspires to have.

Countryman heads the State Department's Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. His unusually critical comments come as President Barack Obama prepares to host more than 50 world leaders for a nuclear security summit in Washington at the end of this month.

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"There is a degree of competition among the major powers in East Asia. It is a competition that in my view extends into irrational spheres, such as, 'Hey, they have this technology, we have got to have it, too.' No matter (that) it is a technology that makes no economic sense and that would not improve their standing in their world," he said.

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