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Across Japan thousands protest against nuclear power

Antinuclear protests held across Japan on anniversary of disaster, Mainichi Daily News,   http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120312p2g00m0dm069000c.html 12 March 12, TOKYO (Kyodo) — Antinuclear protesters took to the streets in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan on Sunday, the one-year anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami which triggered the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

Near the head office of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the crippled Fukushima complex, demonstrators called for the country to abandon nuclear power generation and restore Fukushima Prefecture, where more than 100,000 residents were forced to relocate.

Some 16,000 people attended an antinuclear gathering in the city of Koriyama in Fukushima and rallied in the city, calling for scrapping all nuclear reactors in Japan. The country has 54 commercial nuclear reactors, which provided a third of Japan’s electric power prior to the Fukushima plant disaster.

In Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, about 1,100 people gathered to call for scrapping Chubu Electric Power Co.’s nuclear reactors at its Hamaoka power plant. Those reactors were halted last May after then prime minister Naoto Kan asked the utility to suspend their operation due to concern about a powerful quake in that area of Shizuoka Prefecture.

About 1,200 people including members of antinuclear citizens’ groups marched in the city of Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, which hosts the prototype fast-breeder reactor Monju and Kansai Electric Power Co.’s nuclear reactors.

They voiced objection to restarting two of the reactors at Kansai Electric’s Oi power plant in the prefecture after the country’s nuclear safety agency approved results of safety tests conducted on the reactors idled for a regular checkup and left a final decision on whether to restart them to the government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

“What we need to do, after witnessing how tragic Tokyo Electric’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident is, is to build a society which does not rely on nuclear plants,” said Fujio Yamamoto, who leads a group which organized the protest.

Similar protests were also held in other prefectures which host nuclear power plants or related facilities, including Saga and Aomori.

In the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, atomic bomb survivors took part in antinuclear protests and urged the country to stop relying on nuclear power.

March 12, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, opposition to nuclear