Subject: ＥＥＥ会議（Re: 東海再処理工場のPu計量誤差問題）
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 02:27:42 +0900
From: "金子　熊夫" <kkaneko@eagle.ocn.ne.jp>

各位

標記問題に関し英国のThe Financial Times（１月２８日付け）が要旨次のとおり報
道しております。 わざわざ「行方不明のプルトニウムが北朝鮮に盗まれたのではな
いらしい」と言っているところが味噌です。全文は
http://news.ft.com/world/asiapacific でどうぞ。
金子熊夫
*******************************************

Japan 'loses' 206kg of plutonium
　　　　　　
　　　　　　　By Bayan Rahman in Tokyo

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. [...]

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. [...]