July 21, 2011
Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on July 20 spoke on the nuclear power issue at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo.
A facilitator introduced the JCP as the only party in Japan that has consistently opposed nuclear power generation.
Referring to the government’s announcement on July 19 that “step one” to end the Fukushima crisis was completed, Shii criticized this as “unsubstantiated optimism”, stating that the present condition is “like putting water into a ‘black box’ without knowing conditions inside and how the crippled reactors and their nuclear fuel are responding.”
“Contaminated water may possibly flow underground. So, the government must objectively face reality and do the maximum possible to contain radiation contamination using an assumption of the worst case scenario,” Shii argued.
The JCP chair pointed out that the pro-nuclear power business lobby, politicians, bureaucrats, scholars, and mass media concerned all helped to create the nuclear “safety myth” by forming a “community of interest” and they have reaped huge profits from nuclear power promotion.
Citing the fact that 73% of enriched uranium used at Japanese nuclear plants has come from the United States and that Japan incorporates U.S. technology in nuclear power stations, he said, “Japan rushed towards the use of nuclear energy in a submissive manner to the business and geopolitical interests of the United States.”
“Without dismantling the business-led ‘community of interest’, neither a withdrawal from nuclear power generation nor a halt to Japan’s energy subordination to the United States can come about. In short, it demands a national struggle to change the direction of politics,” he stated.
The facilitator commented after Shii concluded his speech that if NPPs disappear from Japan, the foreign reporters’ club will invite Shii again to speak on how this has been achieved.
A facilitator introduced the JCP as the only party in Japan that has consistently opposed nuclear power generation.
Referring to the government’s announcement on July 19 that “step one” to end the Fukushima crisis was completed, Shii criticized this as “unsubstantiated optimism”, stating that the present condition is “like putting water into a ‘black box’ without knowing conditions inside and how the crippled reactors and their nuclear fuel are responding.”
“Contaminated water may possibly flow underground. So, the government must objectively face reality and do the maximum possible to contain radiation contamination using an assumption of the worst case scenario,” Shii argued.
The JCP chair pointed out that the pro-nuclear power business lobby, politicians, bureaucrats, scholars, and mass media concerned all helped to create the nuclear “safety myth” by forming a “community of interest” and they have reaped huge profits from nuclear power promotion.
Citing the fact that 73% of enriched uranium used at Japanese nuclear plants has come from the United States and that Japan incorporates U.S. technology in nuclear power stations, he said, “Japan rushed towards the use of nuclear energy in a submissive manner to the business and geopolitical interests of the United States.”
“Without dismantling the business-led ‘community of interest’, neither a withdrawal from nuclear power generation nor a halt to Japan’s energy subordination to the United States can come about. In short, it demands a national struggle to change the direction of politics,” he stated.
The facilitator commented after Shii concluded his speech that if NPPs disappear from Japan, the foreign reporters’ club will invite Shii again to speak on how this has been achieved.
