Chinese ambassador expresses concerns over Japan's excessive accumulation of sensitive nuclear materials

China adopts an open, transparent and responsible nuclear policy, said China's Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs Fu Cong here on Tuesday, while expressing concerns over Japan's excessive accumulation of sensitive nuclear materials.

"China firmly sticks to a path of pursuing peaceful development, and adopts an open, transparent and responsible nuclear policy," he said. "China has consistently advocated and promoted complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons."

Fu made the remarks at a thematic discussion on nuclear disarmament at the first committee of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly. In his remarks, he expressed grave concerns over Japan's excessive accumulation of sensitive nuclear materials and the imbalance of supply and demand of nuclear materials in Japan.

Over the years, Fu said, Japan has accumulated a huge amount of sensitive nuclear materials, giving rise to grave risks both in terms of nuclear security and nuclear proliferation.

"At present, Japan possesses about 1200 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) and about 47.8 tons of separated plutonium, among which 10.8 tons are stored on Japanese territory, enough to make 1350 nuclear warheads," he elaborated.

"The current stockpile of nuclear materials of Japan far exceeds its legitimate needs," said Fu, noting that this situation not only contravenes to Japan's proclaimed policy of "no excess plutonium" and its own proposal to reduce the use of HEU, but also violates the relevant rules and guidelines of the IAEA and the purposes and objectives of the Nuclear Security Summit.

"Obviously, such a situation is a cause of grave concern for the international community," he added.

Fu further illustrated that twenty years after announcement of its "no excess plutonium" policy, Japan's total amount of separated plutonium was doubled rather than reduced.

He said that against this background, instead of taking any serious step to reassure the world, Japan is taking actions that further aggravate the situation.

"First, Japan restarted the first nuclear power unit this August; second, Japan plans to start in March 2016 operation of Rokkasho reprocessing plant, with a designed capacity to produce 8.9 tons of separated plutonium annually," he said.

Fu stressed given the lack of feasible ways to consume these materials, it can be predicted that the imbalance of supply and demand of nuclear materials in Japan will aggravate further.

"On top of these, despite the fact that, in March 2014 Japan promised to return 331 kg of weapon-grade plutonium and part of its HEU to the US, so far, we have not seen any progress reported in this regard," he said.

"Meanwhile, we have also noted with concern that, over the years, some political forces in Japan have continuously clamored for the development of nuclear weapons, claiming that Japan should have nuclear weapons if it wants to be a power that could sway the international politics," he added.

In light of all these developments, Fu said "we strongly urge the Japanese government to respond to the concerns of the international community in a responsible manner and take concrete measures to address the existing problems."

"For this has a significant bearing on the international nonproliferation system, nuclear safety and security as well as prevention of the threat of nuclear terrorism," he said. Endit