Japan Press Weekly

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2015 September 16 - 29 [US FORCES]

US nuclear aircraft carrier scattered radioactive contaminants near Japanese waters

A citizens’ group in Kanagawa’s Yokosuka City revealed on September 28 that the U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington, which had been deployed to the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base until recently, had discharged radiation-tainted water within Japan’s exclusive economic zones.

The residents’ group learned of the fact from the ship’s logbook disclosed by the U.S. government.

According to the log, in April 2011, the nuclear carrier pumped its primary cooling water out of the ship four times near Tori-shima Island located about 600 km south of Tokyo. On the previous day of its return to its home port in Yokosuka in the same month, the USS also emitted into the air the gases expanded in its activated atomic reactor　near Aogashima Island about 360 km south of Tokyo.

At a press conference in the city office, lawyer Goto Masahiko, co-representative of the civic organization, pointed out that the discharged water and gases contained radioactive substances.

On the same day, Goto and other members of the group visited Japan’s Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, demanding the investigation of the issue as well as an immediate end to such harmful acts by the U.S. military.

The USS George Washington left Japan in May this year. The successor nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan is scheduled to arrive in Yokosuka on October 2.

Past related article:
> 8,000 people rally to oppose US plan to permanently deploy nuclear carrier to Yokosuka [September 15, 2015]