Japan Press Weekly

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2011 November 30 - December 6 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Collect experts’ wisdom to defend safety

Overcome discrimination and oppression (Part 6)

At the International Peace Museum of Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto City, Honorary Curator Anzai Ikuro told of an incident in 2009 which reminded him of his bitter days at Tokyo University’s Medical Faculty.

Unchanged bias

It happened when a volunteer group at the museum planned to go to the Takahama Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture as an annual peace tour to be guided by Anzai. Just before the tour was to take place, a Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) official declined to accept the tour group because Anzai was an outspoken opponent to NPPs.

Okada Tomoko, who arranged the tour for the group, fiercely protested, saying, “To reject the group simply because Anzai is critical of nuclear power generation violates the freedom of thought and belief. The facilities should be open impartially to users of electricity. ”

The next day, the KEPCO official told Okada on the phone that the tour was acceptable and that he was scolded by his superior for acting on his personal judgment. Later, the official visited the group to make an apology. The group demanded a promise that KEPCO will not refuse visitors on the basis of ideology, and that this would not change in the future.

Anzai said, “I realize that the ideological bias of NPP vested interests has not changed a bit. Those who are critical of NPPs are totally denied, differentiated and ostracized.”

On April 15, about a month after the Fukushima nuclear accident, a class reunion of the Tokyo University’s first class in the atomic engineering department was scheduled to take place.

Anzai proposed that the reunion be postponed because the nuclear accident was still out of control. He asked his fellow alumni to do what they could to help control the crisis since many of them were closely involved in government organizations.

Later, Saito Shinzo, a classmate and ex-Atomic Energy Commission chair, reported to Anzai that he and other 15 experts had submitted to the government an urgent proposal in regard to the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The proposal offered a deep apology to the public for contributing significantly to “the promotion of the peaceful use of nuclear energy” and called on the government for a national effort to bring together all available related expertise and wisdom in Japan in order to help build an effective system to control the accident.

Researchers’ role

Anzai said, “In Japan, many researchers were used as tools to give the go-ahead to nuclear power generation. Those who were critical were ostracized or just ignored. My impression is that this policy of denial led the nation’s nuclear power administration to the catastrophe.”

He continued, “It is essential that the government reflects on its past and establishes a system in which scholars critical of NPPs can freely speak up and that the government respond to their concerns. Controlling the accident, decontamination, and decommissioning nuclear reactors are demanding tasks. Researchers have a role to play by pooling their collective wisdom.”

(To be continued)