Japan Press Weekly

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2011 August 24 - 30 TOP3 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

HEPCO tries to manipulate local residents’ opinions on ‘pluthermal’ project

Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Inc. (HEPCO) ordered workers to attend a symposium held by local municipalities to hear residents’ opinions on the introduction of its plutonium-thermal power project and present pro-project opinions. This throws the credibility of “citizen” opinions into doubt.

This has been discovered through documents Akahata has obtained and interviews with sources close to HEPCO.

The symposium took place on October 12, 2008, in Iwanai Town (7.5km from HEPCO’s Tomari Nuclear Power Plant) hosted by the Hokkaido prefectural government and four other surrounding municipalities in order to allow the public to voice their views on the “pluthermal” project at the Tomari NNP Unit 3 reactor.

Nine days prior to the symposium, the public relations section of HEPCO’s Tomari NPP office sent an e-mail to its workers of 21 departments in the NPP requesting that they participate in and submit pro-“pluthermal” opinions to the symposium.

Iwanai Town Assembly member Ota Tsutomu of the Japanese Communist Party was at the symposium in question. He recalls that none of the speakers identified themselves as a HEPCO employee. He said, “There were still many participants raising their hands wishing to express opinions, but a coordinator stopped them by saying, ‘Time’s up!’ Many objections, such as ‘I haven’t asked any question yet,’ were heard here and there from the floor.”

Even with the stage-managed performance, more than half of the opinions at the symposium were being in opposition to the “pluthermal” project. However, the Hokkaido prefectural government later said that the opinions were evenly divided and announced that it would bring briefing sessions and opinion hearings on the “pluthermal” project to a close with this symposium. Five months later, Hokkaido Governor Takahashi Harumi gave the go-ahead for the project.

To an Akahata inquiry, HEPCO replied that it is now “investigating and checking” on the matter.

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HEPCO has a history of a similar manipulation. In 1999, the utility had its employees send the prefectural government views in favor of the construction of a Unit 3 reactor at the Tomari NPP. A document, stamped “strictly confidential,” was uncovered, which was intended as a sample letter from an ordinary homemaker supporting the construction of a new reactor.