The crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 has revealed the danger posed by the storing of spent nuclear fuel in pools at the plant, because after the pools drained partly or wholly the fuel heated up and discharged radiation.
Before the disaster, most people in Japan were not aware of the potential risks involving spent nuclear fuel. However, documentary film director Hitomi Kamanaka has long warned of just such dangers — and her 2007 film "Rokkashomura Rhapsody" made no bones about the problems surrounding Japan's approach to reprocessing and recycling the radioactive material.
The film, which took three years to make, and which has been shown again in Tokyo and some other cities since March 11, focuses on Rokkasho, a village (mura) in Aomori Prefecture where what will be the country's main nuclear fuel reprocessing plant is set to go into commercial operation in 2012.
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