Date

Apr 5, 1977

Description

Following up the responses to PRM-15 with Directive PD-8 President Carter instructed the agencies to "seek a pause among all nations in sensitive nuclear developments in order to initiate and actively participate in, an intensive international nuclear fuel cycle re-evaluation program (IFCEP) whose technical aspects shall concern the development and promotion of alternative, non-sensitive, nuclear fuel cycles. This program will include both nuclear supplier and recipient nations." As part of the pause, the United States Government would "indefinitely defer the commercial reprocessing and recycle of plutonium in the U.S."

Recognizing that a number of close allies, including France, West Germany, and Japan, had a strong interest in reprocessing, State Department officials believed that Washington "must take account of these concerns while moving toward our objectives of finding alternatives to a plutonium economy and minimizing the global accumulation of weapons usable material." On Japan, Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher observed that "Right wing elements in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and conservative business groups in Japan are strident on" the Tokai Mura reprocessing plant and that Japanese public opinion saw U.S. opposition as a denial of energy self-sufficiency to "resource-poor Japan." Therefore, Washington needed "to proceed in a manner which will not seem to present the Japanese with a fait accompli or foreclose possibilities for further discussion."

Source

State Department mandatory declassification review (MDR) release

Document published in following posting(s):

Japan Plutonium Overhang Origins and Dangers Debated by U.S. Officials

Jun 8, 2017