The government's decision to host an international project to build the next-generation thermonuclear experimental reactor in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, lacks a critical element: public understanding. The decision, prompted by a group of Liberal Democratic Party legislators promoting nuclear fusion energy, represents a triumph of political judgment over scientific opinion.
The dubious conclusion suggests a covert relationship between politicians and bureaucrats -- the same kind of connections that allegedly contributed to foreign-aid irregularities involving the Northern Territories and to the inept handling of mad cow disease. The government owes the public a convincing explanation of why Rokkasho has been selected.
Originally, the international thermonuclear experimental reactor, or INTER, had been expected to be constructed at Naka, Ibaraki Prefecture, where the Atomic Energy Research Institute already has a large-scale nuclear fusion experimental unit (JT60). The town is also the center of INTER design. A government-commissioned scientific study had favored Naka.