Monday, March 12, 2012

Japan earthquake and tsunami anniversary: 45,000 rally against nuclear power

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An estimated 45,000 people took part in demonstrations in Tokyo against nuclear power on Sunday, amid growing public concern that the government is bringing pressure to bear on local authorities to restart reactors shut down for safety checks.Last year’s magnitude-nine earthquake triggered a tsunami that crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and caused the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986. All but two of Japan’s 54 nuclear power stations are suspended, and campaigners want to prevent any reopening.Both operating reactors are scheduled to be shut down for tests before the end of April.

The government says if they are not put back into operation soon, there will be a shortfall of energy amounting to 9.2 percent in the peak months of the summer.Environmental groups dispute that assessment, and accuse the Ministry of Economy,

Trade and Industry of massaging the figures by omitting power from major users that is sold back to energy firms, disregarding power from all renewable sources and using peak estimates throughout its report.Clumsy efforts to manipulate public opinion only harm the government’s position further, said Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of environmental group Green Action.“Since the disasters, people have realised that they are not completely in control of their lives,” she said. “They have realised that the trust they had in Japanese technology and the belief that nuclear power was safe is just not true.“They also now know that an incident a long way away affects each and every one of us, that all of us have put radiation from Fukushima into our mouths,” she said. “They realise that this will affect all of us for years to come.”

At a separate anti-nuclear rally yesterday in Osaka, marchers called on the government to drop plans to restart the plant at Oi, before the end of the month. This morning, 250 local residents were due to file a lawsuit at the Osaka District Court against Kansai Electric Power Co seeking an injunction against the plant being restarted.The last of its four reactors was shut down for a regular safety inspection in December and stress-tests on all the reactors were completed and approved on February 9, but the local authorities have so far withheld permission for the plant to go back into operation.

Yuko Hirono, who took her four year old child to the Tokyo protest, is one of the growing number of Japanese who are only too aware of how their lives have changed in the last 12 moths.“I didn’t want to just watch the protests on television, as if nothing has happened or changed,” she said. “I think opposition to nuclear power is growing.”

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9136835/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-anniversary-45000-rally-against-nuclear-power.html


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