Japan Press Weekly

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2015 November 4 - 10 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Evacuation standard in case of radiation contamination from US nuclear ship to be tightened

The Japanese government issued a policy on November 6 to tighten the current standard for evacuating local residents in case a nuclear-powered ship deployed to the U.S. Yokosuka Naval Base (Kanagawa Pref.) causes a radiation accident. This move is in response to the demand of local residents and the Japanese Communist Party.

The national government has manuals to deal with serious accidents at nuclear power plants and on U.S. nuclear vessels deployed in Japan. Those manuals require local authorities to evacuate their residents when the amount of leaked radiation reaches 5 microsieverts in a nuclear power plant accident but allow it to reach 100 microsieverts in a nuclear-powered USS disaster.

At a working committee meeting on the revision of the manuals, state authorities decided to begin to evacuate residents when the radiation dose reaches 5 microsieverts in the case of an accident on a U.S. nuclear vessel as well.

Local citizens as well as the governments of Yokosuka City and other surrounding municipalities have called for the reevaluation of the evacuation criteria, insisting that it is unacceptable to give the U.S. navy preferential treatment. At an Upper House committee session in May 2014, JCP parliamentarian Tamura Tomoko urged the central government to abandon the “double standard”. A government official replied, “We’ll address the issue properly.”

With regard to the revision of the criteria, JCP Tamura said, “Even after the Fukushima nuclear disaster four years ago, the administration has left this double standard untouched by sticking to another myth that U.S. nuclear vessels will never have a severe accident. I’m determined to work to expand the voices calling for removing both nuclear ships and nuclear power facilities from Japan, a tsunami-and-earthquake-ridden country.”

Past related article:
> Yokosuka citizens protest against arrival of US nuclear aircraft carrier [October 2, 2015]