Japan Press Weekly

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2011 June 8 - 14 [ENVIRONMENT]

Obama City Assembly unanimously resolves to withdraw from nuclear power generation

The Obama City Assembly in Fukui Prefecture, which supposedly has Japan’s largest concentration of nuclear plants, on June 9 unanimously adopted a statement urging the national government to withdraw from nuclear power generation with a clearly set time deadline.

The city is located within a 20-km radius of Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Ooi Nuclear Power Plant in neighboring Ooi Town. About 16,000 Obama citizens, half of the city population, live within a 10-km radius of the plant.

The statement demands that the government break away from nuclear power generation by setting a time limit on the shutdown of operations; change its energy policy to utilize alternative forms of energy; prohibit utilities from operating nuclear reactors aged 30 years and over; revise the current safety standards on nuclear power plants drastically; and provide strong authority to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency by separating it from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

In Obama City, a civil movement blocked the city government’s plans to construct nuclear power plants in the 1970s. It also prevented another plan to build a temporary storage facility of used fuel from nuclear reactors in 2004.

A JCP representative in the city assembly, Miyazaki Jiuzo said, “With the Fukushima nuclear accident in mind, all Obama residents hope that the next generation will be free from the anxiety of nuclear accidents. The state should change its energy policy to one using renewable energies.”