nuclear-news

 In France, which faces a presidential election this spring, the Socialists and Greens pledged to close 24 reactors by 2025 as public opinion in what was once Europe’s strongest supporter of nuclear plants begins to falter.

In Japan, efforts to collect signatures in support of a national vote on the future of nuclear power began just after the Fukushima disaster struck. But there are also separate attempts to introduce specific plebiscites in Tokyo and in the city of Osaka.

What are the Tokyo and Osaka plebiscite drives calling for?

The Tokyo and Osaka plebiscite drives want both governments to ensure citizens’ voices are heard on the question of whether Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co. should be allowed to run nuclear plants.

They also seek to ensure that both metropolitan areas promote local production, consumption and more democratic management of renewable energy sources over the middle to long term…….

Osaka’s signature drive is over. What happens next?

Osaka collected 61,000 signatures, more than enough to ask Mayor Toru Hashimoto to introduce a plebiscite proposal to the municipal assembly. The signatures were delivered to the city election commission on Jan. 16. The commission has 20 days to verify the signatures.

If the requisite number is verified, the group seeking a plebiscite will formally ask Hashimoto to propose to the assembly that the poll be held. A simple majority vote by the assembly will decide if a plebiscite is held.

What about Tokyo?

Tokyo’s signature drive as of Saturday had around 147,000 of the nearly 214,000 signatures needed by the Feb. 9 deadline…..

Have plebiscites on nuclear power ever succeeded?

Since 1982, there have been more than two dozen attempts, mostly in small towns and villages, to force assemblies to hold plebiscites on nuclear materials or power plants.

To date only three have been held, in the villages of Maki and Kariwa in Niigata Prefecture, and in Miyama, Mie Prefecture. In all three polls, voters said no to nuclear power.  http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120131i1.html