Japan Press Weekly

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2012 April 4 - 10 [US FORCES]

Local residents oppose US transfer of radioactive wastes out from aircraft carrier

Peace activists in Kanagawa Prefecture on April 6 petitioned the Yokosuka City mayor to request the U.S. Navy to stop its transfer of low-level radioactive wastes from its aircraft carrier.

They are members of the Kanagawa branches of Japan Association for a Non-Nuclear Government and the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. Isaka Shinya, a Japanese Communist Party member of Yokosuka City Assembly, participated in the petitioning action.

The U.S. Navy is planning to transfer a container packed with radioactive wastes from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington to a freighter on April 10.

The participants pointed out that the transfer violates a bilateral agreement known as the aide-memoir of 1964, which stated that no radioactively-contaminated materials would be removed from nuclear powered warships in ports other than in the United States. They demanded that the mayor request the U.S. to stop transferring the wastes from the GW.

An official of the municipality told them that the city has no intention to demand the cancellation of the transfer under the present circumstances. The petitioners asked the authorities to determine safety independently without swallowing the U.S. and Japanese government line.

The official replied that safety was ensured because monitoring posts continuously monitored radiation levels.

Mitsui Yasuhiro, secretary general of the Yokosuka-Miura branch of Kanagawa construction workers’ union, severely criticized the authorities’ lackadaisical attitude. “It’s too late for regrets if the monitoring posts show abnormally high levels of radiation as unexpectedly occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,” he said.