April 10, 2011
Local committees of the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Japan Gensuikyo) on April 8 made representations to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to demand that the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington be removed from the U.S. Navy Yokosuka Base in Kanagawa Prefecture.
The Gensuikyo chapter in Kanagawa Prefecture, where the USS George Washington is based, and other Gensuikyo chapters in surrounding prefectures demanded that U.S. nuclear submarines be barred from entering the Yokosuka Port.
Representatives of the local Gensuikyo decided to take this action with the delegitimatization of the “safety myth” of nuclear power generation in light of the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant.
They stated that the U.S. Navy should not conduct the USS GW’s regular maintenance and repair work involving radioactivity control at the Yokosuka Port on the grounds that the port is located just above an active fault zone.
They also argued that the government should retract its conventional view that nuclear reactors on the USS GW are resistant to an impact 100 times larger than an earthquake registering 6 on the Japanese scale.
A ministry official, in response, maintained the position that the government considers that the USS GW’s reactors is safe enough based on the fact sheet submitted by the U.S. Navy.
The local Gensuikyo representatives pointed out that the government stance that the U.S. nuclear reactors are safe because the U.S. fact sheet says so is the very “myth” in question and that residents living near the Yokosuka base have to continuously live in great fear of an accident.
The ministry official said that the government will assess the safety of Yokosuka facing a major earthquake or tsunami.
The Gensuikyo chapter in Kanagawa Prefecture, where the USS George Washington is based, and other Gensuikyo chapters in surrounding prefectures demanded that U.S. nuclear submarines be barred from entering the Yokosuka Port.
Representatives of the local Gensuikyo decided to take this action with the delegitimatization of the “safety myth” of nuclear power generation in light of the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant.
They stated that the U.S. Navy should not conduct the USS GW’s regular maintenance and repair work involving radioactivity control at the Yokosuka Port on the grounds that the port is located just above an active fault zone.
They also argued that the government should retract its conventional view that nuclear reactors on the USS GW are resistant to an impact 100 times larger than an earthquake registering 6 on the Japanese scale.
A ministry official, in response, maintained the position that the government considers that the USS GW’s reactors is safe enough based on the fact sheet submitted by the U.S. Navy.
The local Gensuikyo representatives pointed out that the government stance that the U.S. nuclear reactors are safe because the U.S. fact sheet says so is the very “myth” in question and that residents living near the Yokosuka base have to continuously live in great fear of an accident.
The ministry official said that the government will assess the safety of Yokosuka facing a major earthquake or tsunami.
