Japan Press Weekly

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2012 December 12 - 18 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Anti-nuke mayors call for renewable energy use

The “Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan” network held a study meeting in Fukushima’s Koriyama City on December 15 and discussed the restoration of Fukushima which was devastated by the last year’s nuclear accident and how to encourage the use of renewable energy.

The network consists of 80 incumbent and former municipal leaders.

Some European experts on energy issues spoke at the meeting. Uwe Fritsche, a German director at the International Institute for Sustainability Analysis and Strategy said that in Germany the electricity output from renewable energy has doubled in the past 10 years, exceeding that from nuclear energy in 2011. He also stated that the utilization of recyclable energy has been growing in that country through implementing a variety of measures such as converting military facilities into power plants.

Yoshino Hiroyuki, a head of a civil network to protect children from exposure to radioactivity, presented a program in which children from the stricken areas can come into touch with nature and experience group living in the countryside far from Fukushima.

Fukushima University Associate Professor Tanba Fuminori stressed that nuclear power deprived the disaster victims of the right to live, referring to their harsh living conditions. He said, “Now that atomic power generation has proved to be dangerous for the future of our children, we must no longer depend on it.”

Fukushima’s Minamisoma City Mayor Sakurai Katsunobu said, “We have to say good-bye to nuclear power because it cannot coexist with the environment.”

The participants adopted a statement calling on the government and authorities concerned to bring the severe accident under control as soon as possible and to take responsibility for sufferers’ health care and the decontamination of disaster areas.


Related past article
> Mayors’ group issues proposal to break with nuclear power [August 1, 2012]