July 8, 2020

The prefectural and municipal assemblies in Fukushima Prefecture have passed a written opinion opposing a national government plan to discharge radioactive water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean.

This was shown in a survey by the Japanese Communist Party Fukushima prefectural assembly members’ group. According to the JCP survey, as of July 2, the prefectural assembly and 20 municipal assemblies in the prefecture adopted a written opinion concerning the ocean release plan. These assemblies include not only those of municipalities in the coastal area where the Fukushima NPP is located but also those in the inland area.

Of the 21 assemblies, 18 took a negative stance toward the Abe government’s ocean discharge plan. The remaining three refrained from clarifying their stances, although they expressed concern about reputational damage to the local fisheries industry.

The assembly of Namie Town which is the closest town to the Fukushima NPP indicated its strong opposition to the ocean release plan. The assembly in its statement pointed out that the implementation of the ocean release plan without any effective countermeasures against the remaining reputational damage will become a matter of life or death for the town.

The assembly of the inland village of Nishigo in southern Fukushima approved a statement urging Tokyo Electric Power Company to store the contaminated water at the Fukushima NPP site by building large storage tanks or turning it into mortar in order to force TEPCO to take responsibility for having caused the meltdown accident.

In addition, most assemblies adopting a written opinion criticized the central government for its refusal to listen to the concerns of Fukushima residents and demanded that the government provide local people the opportunity to publicly express their opinions.

Past related article:
> Fukushima residents oppose gov’t plan to discharge radioactive Fukushima water into ocean [April 7, 2020]