nuclear-news

55,000 Osaka residents want plebiscite on nuclear power

Hashimoto’s opposition a big hurdle in Osaka nuclear plebiscite drive, Japan Times,  By ERIC JOHNSTON Staff writer, 24 Feb 12,  OSAKA — Efforts by a citizens’ group to hold a plebiscite in Osaka on the future of nuclear power hit a major stumbling block when Mayor Toru Hashimoto formally announced his opposition to the plan this week.

Earlier this month, the group pushing for a plebiscite to allow residents to vote on whether to abolish local atomic power plants submitted a petition with the signatures of more than 55,000 Osaka residents eligible to vote. The total is more than the number required to force the municipal assembly to vote on whether to hold the referendum.

But Hashimoto declared he is against the idea, even though he began
calling for atomic energy to be reduced last year while he was Osaka
governor and pledged to aim to cut nuclear power and replace it with
renewable energy sources in the platform of his group, Osaka Ishin no
Kai (One Osaka), before last November’s mayoral and gubernatorial
polls.

Ishin no Kai members accounting for 33 of the assembly’s 86 seats are
expected to follow Hashimoto’s lead and vote against the proposal when
the municipal chamber debates it next month.

So far, only the two smallest groups in the assembly have agreed to
support the plan — Osaka Mirai, which has nine seats, and the Japanese
Communist Party, with eight…..
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120224a3.html

February 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, politics