We must leave our children and grandchildren beauty of natural environment: JCP assembly member on MOX fuel referendum

A local plebiscite will be held on May 27 in Kariwa Village in Niigata Prefecture to decide whether to allow plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel to be used in a nuclear reactor of Tokyo Electric Power Company's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant.

Kariwa Village is a small village facing the Sea of Japan with a population of 5,100. The village has about 250 subcontractors of the TEPCO.

Ikeda Tsutomu, a Japanese Communist Party village assembly member, said the outcome of the referendum on the so-called "pluthermal plan" will affect the government's nuclear energy policy. Following is his comment as reported by Akahata on May 18:

In this movement calling for a referendum, we have pointed out that local residents, whether they are in favor of or against nuclear power generation, are against the pluthermal plan. It is because the MOX fuel plan will put a thermal nuclear reactor in commercial operations without establishing disaster prevention measures or safety measures. We are afraid of accidents like those of Tokai Village and Chernobyl.

In this village, about 30 percent of the households are said to depend on income from TEPCO. Even those people are equally concerned about the plan which would adversely affect not only their own health and lives but their children and grandchildren. We want residents to use the referendum to express such concern.

When an ordinance to conduct a plebiscite was first proposed in 1999, it was rejected by the village assembly, with only one vote in favor and 14 against. In December 2000, assembly members submitted a bill calling for an ordinance to hold a plebiscite. Although the bill was adopted by 9 votes for and 8 against, the village head virtually vetoed the bill by exercising his right to call for reconsideration. The second vote in favor was short of the prescribed two-thirds norm, and the bill became null and void. Then, the Association to Carry Residents' Voices to Village Administration was set up. The Association collected signatures calling for a plebiscite ordinance from 37 percent of the voters. In the extraordinary assembly session in April 2001, a bill calling for an ordinance was approved by 9 votes for and 6 against.

Villagers' demand for a direct vote was strong enough to prevent the village head from exercising his "right to call for reconsideration." Opposition to the use of plutonium-uranium mixed fuel (MOX) is spreading steadily in and outside the village assembly.

On May 14, the central government distributed door-to-door color-printed leaflets carrying a message from the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiranuma Takeo saying, "MOX fuel is necessary for the future of Japan and local communities." Thirty students were reportedly mobilized from Tokyo to distribute the flier.

As a counter to pro-pluthermal propaganda, we have made handbills and placards, and are conducting a survey and running a campaign car to block the MOX fuel plan. Mothers' call for "the beautiful village and natural environment to be preserved for their children and grandchildren" is touching and rallying greater public support. These activities are getting effects; changes are evident in both women and the village. I feel an extent to which the movement has achieved much already.

I think that the ordinance is significant because it shows that the village assembly and villagers are now united by the demand for the referendum. I believe that that consensus has influenced the village head to decide to carry out the poll.

The referendum will be the nation's first to decide on a MOX fuel project and will have impact beyond Kariwa Village. It will call into question the state policy on atomic energy and encourages grassroots movements.

It is a national policy, but it doesn't mean we must accept it blindly. National policy should protect the people's lives and safety.

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Road to referendum in Kariwa Village

March 1999
Kariwa Village Assembly rejects by 14 votes to 1 an ordinance bill on a referendum based on a direct request with certain number of signatures.

April 1999
Ikeda Tsutomu elected as the first Japanese Communist Party member of Kariwa Village Assembly.

December 2000
An ordinance bill calling for a referendum submitted by nine assembly members, including independents and JCP Ikeda, and passed by 9 votes to 8.

January 2001
Shinada Hiroo, Kariwa Village head, exercises his "right to call for reconsideration" (veto), and the bill is scrapped after failing to get a two-thirds majority.

January 2001
Nine assembly members join forces to launch a campaign to collect signatures.

April 2001
An ordinance bill to conduct a referendum passed by nine votes to six in the village assembly based on 1,540 signatures. The village head gives up on a reconsideration (veto). The referendum to be held on May 27. (end)