TSURUGA, Fukui Pref. -- Five years after a sodium leak and fire shut down the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor here, the battle over whether it should be put back into operation still rages.
Although officials claim drastic improvements in safety have been carried out and Monju should be restarted as soon as possible, local residents and others opposed to the plant remain unconvinced of its safety and are calling on the prefectural government to keep it closed.
The prototype fast-breeder reactor, the only one of its kind in Japan, was designed to burn plutonium rather than conventional uranium. Tsuruga, a city on the Sea of Japan coast, was chosen as its location in 1970.