Japan Press Weekly

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2013 March 13 - 19 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

217,000 in total sign petition calling for halt of Ikata NPP

A petition signed by 140,842 people requesting that the Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture be decommissioned was submitted to Governor Nakamura Tokihiro on March 11 in the second round of the petition campaign.

Adding to the signatures submitted last November, the number of people who signed the petition totaled 217,088.

Receiving the signatures, an official in charge of the prefectural government’s nuclear safety planning said he will convey the request to the governor.

Wada Tsukasa, representing a civic group engaged in the signature-collecting drive, told the official to work to not reactivate offline reactors at the Ikata plant and to have a plan to strictly manage the spent nuclear fuel and the decommissioning of the reactors.

Wada said, “The national government is seeking to pour a vast sum of money into implementing quakeproof measures for aging reactors, but these will have minimal impact on nuclear safety improvement. It’s time for the prefectural government to decide to decommission the reactors.”

Another petitioner working on the promotion of renewable sources of energy in the neighboring prefecture of Kochi said, “The entire prefecture of Kochi is located within a 200km-zone from the plant. If an accident occurs, we’ll be the ones in trouble. We want the plant to be shut down.”