November 16, 2019

Four assembly members of the nuclear power plant-hosting village of Tokai (Ibaraki Prefecture), including a Japanese Communist Party member, on November 15 met with Mayor Yamada Osamu to lodge a protest against the mayor’s highly controversial remarks.

The mayor in an article in a recent issue of the pro-nuclear power trade magazine “Energy for the Future” remarked that it is necessary to promote the reactivation of idled BWRs (boiling water reactors). The reactor at the Tokai Daini NPP in the village is a BWR. The mayor also said that residents critical of nuclear power generation should refrain from using public transportation and other electricity-powered infrastructure and just stay at home all the time.

The four village assembly members pointed out that the mayor’s remarks indicate that he thinks it necessary to restart the Tokai Daini NPP. In addition, they said that the mayor’s remarks showing his hostility toward anti-nuclear power residents call into question his qualification to remain the head of the town.

Mayor Yamada in response said that his choice of words was clumsy and unnecessarily aggressive and that he should have stayed calm enough to not make such remarks. He added that at this point of time, he has no intention of approving the reactivation of the Tokai Daini NPP.

JCP member of the village assembly Oona Mieko said that the article as a whole is based on the assumption that it is important to resume the operation of offline nuclear reactors. She stressed that the mayor’s remarks were a betrayal of the trusts of residents and the assembly.