2011/7/31 The Mainichi Daily Newsから

Mongolia expresses reservations about nuclear fuel repository plan

2011731日日曜日

 

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Mongolia has reservations about a plan to build a facility there to store or dispose

of spent nuclear fuel from other countries, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki

Matsumoto said Wednesday.

 

Matsumoto told a parliamentary session that when he met with his

Mongolian counterpart Gombojav Zandanshatar last Saturday,

the Mongolian minister said his country would find it difficult

under domestic law to take in nuclear waste from overseas.

 

The Japanese minister said Zandanshatar brought up the issue when the

two were discussing cooperation on civilian nuclear power generation,

including the development of uranium in Mongolia, during a meeting in

Bali, Indonesia, on the fringes of a regional security meeting there.

 

Japan, the United States and Mongolia have informally discussed a plan to

establish a nuclear fuel repository in Mongolia, but

the talks have not yielded any conclusions, Matsumoto said.

 

Toshiba Corp. has lobbied a senior U.S. government official

to realize an international nuclear fuel supply scheme that includes

the construction of a nuclear waste repository in Mongolia,

according to a copy of a letter by the company’s president obtained by Kyodo News.

 

(Mainichi Japan) July 28, 2011