Japan Press Weekly

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2012 August 1 - 14 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Mayors’ group issues proposal to break with nuclear power

A municipal leaders’ group, the “Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan”, on July 31 issued a proposal to abandon the nation’s reliance on nuclear power generation.

The group, consisting of 77 members, includes Kosai City mayor in Shizuoka Prefecture and Tokai Village mayor in Ibaraki Prefecture. The two prefectures both host nuclear power plants.

In the proposal, the leaders argue as follows: The government should take the lead in the work to revive the areas contaminated with radioactive substances, including Fukushima, based on the commitment to not impose a burden on future generations; it is wrong to argue that the degree of dependence on nuclear power is based on the assumption that nuclear power plants would be kept into the indefinite future. The government should encourage developing renewable energy, reducing the consumption of electric power, and implementing innovations in power systems; public hearings on nuclear power dependence held by the government have lost people’s trust as power company officials who participated in the hearings made statements supporting nuclear power generation. The government should start the hearings again from scratch to allow input from the general public.

The heads propose to fully break away from nuclear power by 2030. They argue that it is unacceptable to restart idled nuclear reactors without investigating the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and requested the government to halt operations at the Oi NPP.

Tokai Village Mayor Murakami Tatsuya said at the news conference, “I was disappointed with the fact that the government and the power industry are still clinging to nuclear power even after the severe accident. We have to establish a policy of breaking away from nuclear power and make clear the way to achieve this.”