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"Nuclear power, which does not produce carbon dioxide, is a trump card for global warming measures," said Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda Tuesday at an international conference held by the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum in Tokyo to discuss peaceful uses of nuclear power.

It was the first time for Japan's prime minister to participate in such a conference and for Fukuda to refer publicly to the effectiveness of nuclear power. The issue is a delicate one in Japan, which is the only nation to have experienced a nuclear bomb, and which has also faced a number of accidents at its existing nuclear facilities. One-third of Japan's energy needs are currently met by nuclear power.

"I think the recent moves toward a nuclear revival or 'renaissance' show that Japan's consistent nuclear energy development was anything but a mistake," Fukuda stressed.

The prime minister's remarks come ahead of the expected opening of a controversial nuclear reprocessing facility next month, in the northern region of Aomori. The Rokkasho plant will allow nuclear waste to be recycled by extracting uranium and plutonium. Although Japan has 55 nuclear power plants, this will be its first large-scale reprocessing facility. However, technical challenges that surfaced at the end of last year make it uncertain if the plant will begin operation according to schedule.

Fukuda's public promotion of nuclear energy marks a change of tune in the face of a growing sense of crisis. In his January policy speech and his address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland the same month, Fukuda stressed the need for renewable energy sources such as solar power, but did not mention nuclear power.

Japan is facing a tough job to meet the greenhouse gas emissions target set by the Kyoto Protocol -- by 2012 it must cut emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels. Since Japan's emissions rose by 7.7 percent between 1990 and 2005, it now has to reduce them 13.7 percent to meet its target. Japan is planning to buy an extra 320 million tons of emissions credits from other countries, at a cost of US$9.85 billion, but it will still be difficult to meet the goal.

France is an ally in the decision to boost nuclear power as a means of tackling global warming. Last week French Prime Minister Francois Fillon visited the Rokkasho nuclear reprocessing plant, which is owned by Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. and operated with technology from France's state-run nuclear giant Areva.

Speaking to reporters, Fillon described France and Japan as promoters of the reasonable use of nuclear energy on a global scale. Paris and Tokyo are expected to announce a common plan of action in favor of the civilian use of nuclear energy at the July Group of Eight summit of the world's leading industrialized nations, hosted by Japan.

Domestic controversy remains, however. When the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station north of Tokyo was damaged by a tremor of magnitude 6.8 last July, debate emerged over the pros and cons of operating 55 nuclear reactors in Japan, one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. Since then a sense of stagnation has hung over the industry. Fukuda's newly voiced commitment to nuclear power is likely to breathe new life into the industry, however.

The Rokkasho reprocessing facility has also come under the international spotlight, as it is the first such commercial plant in a nonnuclear-weapon state. It will extract plutonium, which can be used to produce nuclear weapons, and uranium from spent nuclear fuel for recycling. Experts also point out that the process poses an environmental safety risk.

"The facility should stop immediately because it is too dangerous; radioactive contamination will be spread extensively once it starts operations," said Hiroaki Koide of the Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute.

According to Koide, who is an expert on assessing the consequences of radioactive contamination, the facility will emit large amounts of radioactive material into the air through a 500-foot exhaust flue and into the ocean through an exhaust flue stretching two miles offshore and 150 feet underwater.

"JNFL insist that it is safe if the ingredients are diluted and spread, but this is high-risk behavior because there is no safe amount of radioactivity and nature's self-cleansing effect does not work against it," Koide said. He added that the reprocessing, the main technology required for nuclear weapons development, could lead to Japan's atomic armament.

Lee Heon-Seok, a representative of the Korea Eco-Center who leads an anti-nuclear power movement in South Korea, also criticized the facility's hazardous nature. He was speaking at a meeting Monday in Tokyo held by an anti-nuclear group to share information about South Korea's nucelar power.

"The Rokkasho reprocessing facility is a threat of radioactive contamination for South Korea, as both countries are very close geographically. And we have misgivings that Japan may convert the plutonium to nuclear weapons," Lee said. He predicted that pressure to build a similar reprocessing facility might arise in his country, as Japan's nuclear power policies have a strong influence on South Korea's.

After reprocessing, the process of disposing of remaining radioactive waste is also controversial. The material is mixed with molten glass and poured into steel containers where it is solidified, then later buried in the earth.

During a test of the system last year the glass canisters were found to be too weak to safely hold the waste material and the trial was forced to stop. As a result of the failure, full-scale operations at the plant were postponed from February to May.

Asked by UPI if the glass canister technique had been perfected, Yoichi Hayase, executive vice president of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, avoided a clear answer, saying only that his agency had concluded that the disposal of nuclear waste in glass canisters was possible given Japan's geological stratification.

Meanwhile, Koide pointed out that the technology is very difficult and that it is not well-established even at the present time.

"JNFL is trying to make glass canisters with technology imported from Germany, which has given up the reprocessing. There is no prospect for it to succeed and full-scale operations will continue to be postponed many times," he predicted.

"I don't say that nuclear power is the best way to solve the energy problem but considering skyrocketing oil prices and the environmental issues, nuclear power is the appropriate decision at present," said Norikazu Horiuchi, professor of nuclear engineering at the Musashi Institute of Technology, who attended the two-day conference.

"If we use uranium only one time, it will run dry like crude oil in the future. The reprocessing, which allows effective use of uranium resources, should start operating," Horiuchi said.