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Antinuclear protests held across Japan on anniversary of disaster
Datum: Montag, 12. März 2012 15:23
Antinuclear protests held across Japan on anniversary of disaster
Protesters shout slogans outside a Tokyo Electric Power Company
building during an anti-nuclear demonstration marking the first
anniversary of last year’s massive earthquake and tsunami, which
unleashed the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter century, in
Tokyo, Sunday, March 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa)
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120312p2g00m0dm069000c.html
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Antinuclear protesters took to the streets in Tokyo
and elsewhere in Japan on Sunday, the one-year anniversary of the
massive earthquake and tsunami which triggered the nuclear crisis at
the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
Near the head office of Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the
crippled Fukushima complex, demonstrators called for the country to
abandon nuclear power generation and restore Fukushima Prefecture,
where more than 100,000 residents were forced to relocate.
Some 16,000 people attended an antinuclear gathering in the city of
Koriyama in Fukushima and rallied in the city, calling for scrapping
all nuclear reactors in Japan. The country has 54 commercial nuclear
reactors, which provided a third of Japan’s electric power prior to
the Fukushima plant disaster.
In Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, about 1,100 people gathered
to call for scrapping Chubu Electric Power Co.’s nuclear reactors at
its Hamaoka power plant. Those reactors were halted last May after
then prime minister Naoto Kan asked the utility to suspend their
operation due to concern about a powerful quake in that area of
Shizuoka Prefecture.
About 1,200 people including members of antinuclear citizens‘ groups
marched in the city of Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, which hosts the
prototype fast-breeder reactor Monju and Kansai Electric Power Co.’s
nuclear reactors.
They voiced objection to restarting two of the reactors at Kansai
Electric’s Oi power plant in the prefecture after the country’s
nuclear safety agency approved results of safety tests conducted on
the reactors idled for a regular checkup and left a final decision on
whether to restart them to the government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko
Noda.
„What we need to do, after witnessing how tragic Tokyo Electric’s
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident is, is to build a society
which does not rely on nuclear plants,“ said Fujio Yamamoto, who leads
a group which organized the protest.
Similar protests were also held in other prefectures which host
nuclear power plants or related facilities, including Saga and Aomori.
In the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, atomic bomb survivors took
part in antinuclear protests and urged the country to stop relying on
nuclear power.
(Mainichi Japan) March 12, 2012