United States Circumvented Laws To Help Japan Accumulate Tons of Plutonium

[JohnyCanuck]

By Joseph Trento, on April 9th, 2012

National Security News Service

The United States deliberately allowed Japan access to the United States’ most secret nuclear weapons facilities while it transferred tens of billions of dollars worth of American tax paid research that has allowed Japan to amass 70 tons of weapons grade plutonium since the 1980s, a National Security News Service investigation reveals. These activities repeatedly violated U.S. laws regarding controls of sensitive nuclear materials that could be diverted to weapons programs in Japan. The NSNS investigation found that the United States has known about a secret nuclear weapons program in Japan since the 1960s, according to CIA reports.

The diversion of U.S. classified technology began during the Reagan administration after it allowed a $10 billion reactor sale to China. Japan protested that sensitive technology was being sold to a potential nuclear adversary. The Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations permitted sensitive technology and nuclear materials to be transferred to Japan despite laws and treaties preventing such transfers. Highly sensitive technology on plutonium separation from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site and Hanford nuclear weapons complex, as well as tens of billions of dollars worth of breeder reactor research was turned over to Japan with almost no safeguards against proliferation. Japanese scientist and technicians were given access to both Hanford and Savannah River as part of the transfer process.

While Japan has refrained from deploying nuclear weapons and remains under an umbrella of U.S. nuclear protection, NSNS has learned that the country has used its electrical utility companies as a cover to allow the country to amass enough nuclear weapons materials to build a nuclear arsenal larger than China, India and Pakistan combined.

This deliberate proliferation by the United States fuels arguments by countries like Iran that the original nuclear powers engage in proliferation despite treaty and internal legal obligations. Russia, France, Great Britain as well as the United States created civilian nuclear power industries around the world from their weapons complexes that amount to government-owned or subsidized industries. Israel, like Japan, has been a major beneficiary and, like Japan, has had nuclear weapons capabilities since the 1960s.

http://enenews.com/report-secret-japan-nuclear-bomb-program-covered-up-by-nuclear-power-industry-enough-to-build-arsenal-larger-than-china-india-and-pakistan-combined

[leveymg]

1. That's exactly how Israel got its first atomic bombs, as well. US HEU diverted from the

Last edited Mon Apr 9, 2012, 04:57 PM - Edit history (4)

NUMEC plant during the 1950s and 1960s. Hundreds of kilos of the stuff, right from under our very noses - over and over, again, for years. See, Global Fissile Material Report, p 115, http://fissilematerials.org/library/gfmr10.pdf; also, S. Hersh, The Samson Option; also, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2004/may/13/israels-bomb/

The US was the Crazy Eddie of fissionable materials. Come on in - we're givin' the stuff away!

Or, if you're friends with one of our primary trading partners - let's say, Pakistan -- just tell them that King Saud sent you, and we'll set you up to you run your own global proliferation network.

Like this guy did after CIA Director GHW Bush entered into the BCCI-Safari Club deal with Saudi intel head head Prince Turki. AQ Khan - another satisfied customer! Come on down - we're givin' it away!

[Downwinder]

2. As if Japan didn't have enough problems with radiation.