Posted on 12/31/2013, 7:50:31 PM by sukhoi-30mki
The real reason why Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, refuses to abandon nuclear power is because he wants to develop a nuclear weapons program, claims the Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po, citing Koide Hiroaki, an assistant professor at the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute.
There have been strong calls for Tokyo to reconsider its position on nuclear energy after the Fukushima nuclear incident in March 2011, when the Fukushima Daiichi plant north of Tokyo was hit by an earthquake and tsunami, triggering the world's worst nuclear incident since Chernobyl.
Despite the risks, Hiroaki said that Tokyo is determined to develop a nuclear bomb. As Japan is not allowed to legally import weapons-grade plutonium, he says it is able to extract the plutonium it needs from the nuclear waste from the country's power plants.
US analysts estimate that Japan currently has enough plutonium to build at least 1,000 nuclear bombs. Under its constitution Japan is not allowed to own any weapon with offensive capabilities including the nuclear bomb. However, a growing number of Japanese politicians have begun to call for the abolition of the nation's Three Non-Nuclear Principles as tension between Japan and China over the disputed East China Sea escalates.
The Three Non-Nuclear Principles were outlined by former Japanese prime minister Eisaku Sato in a speech to the House of Representatives in 1967. Under the principles, Japan shall neither possess nor manufacture nuclear weapons, nor shall it permit their introduction into Japanese territory.
The principles have guided Japan's nuclear policy since their inception. However, in order to win right-wing support Abe continues to push ahead and reactive nuclear power plants in Japan despite protest from home and abroad, Wen Wei Po said, adding that this is a very dangerous move for Japan since it will only bring instability to the Asia-Pacific region.
Japan has enough plutonium to build 1,000 nuclear bombs: report
And they could put a bomb together in about a month
This is what happens when america is weak
A bunch of generals just fell out of their chairs in Peking/Beijing.
Unfortunately, they’re all wearing it.
With North Korea in their face...it’s wrong for the US to keep them from having nuclear weapons.
Exactly, they Japanese have no confidence in Obama and feel they have to fend for themselves.
Are water guns still legal in Japan?
Anyone seriously thinking that Japan, like Israel, does not have nukes is seriously deluding themselves.
And like Israel they haven’t used them, nor threatened to use them. And considering their tech and resourcefulness, opposing countries better hope that’s all they have.
Only a fool would think that the Japanese don’t already have functional nuclear weapons. The weapons are likely not assembled and that would give the Japanese a typically Japanese way of denying their existence by saying that they have no nuclear weapons - all while not acknowledging that they have all of the components available to make them.
Classic.
Just take a few hundred gallons of tap water, let it evaporate and poof! Plutonium.
With North Korea in their face...it’s wrong for the US to keep them from having nuclear weapons.
I don’t think the US can do anything to stop them.
“This is what happens when america is weak”
Weak, just as we were on December 6, 1941 but this time Japan has nuclear capabilities.
And Obama apparently has no plan to stop our ally from getting nukes.
I think you are spot on.
I’d love for comments on that from the FReepers in Japan. I think I just pinged two.
“And Obama apparently has no plan to stop our ally from getting nukes.”
Unless, of course, they fail to legalize gay marriage.
Wen Wei Po.
I just figured it was some Obama redistribution scheme.
Good.
Or less. A few Japanese governments back, the Defense Minister was quoted as saying "If Japan decides on Monday that we need nuclear weapons, by Friday we will have them."
Seeing that the Japanese atomic energy agency has some of the fastest supercomputers in the world (not needed for running power plants, but very useful for designing and "virtually testing" nuclear weapons), I suspect they actually have designs and probably even unassembled components for nuclear weapons.
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