Japan Press Weekly

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2014 July 16 - 22 [POLITICS]

Local people protest NRA’s rubber stamp on safety of Sendai NPP

Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) published on July 16 a draft assessment report that the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Kagoshima Prefecture meets the state’s new safety standards for restarting reactors. On the same day, local citizens raised their voices of dissent against the draft report.

Members of nine civil groups seeking a nuclear power-free Japan visited a local nuclear regulatory office in Kagoshima’s Satsumasendai City and handed officials a letter of protest to NRA Chairman Tanaka Shun’ichi.

The letter of protest argues that the watchdog’s draft report fails to provide concrete evidence regarding the claim of safety of the atomic power plant. It also stresses that it is absolutely intolerable for the government to give the green light to reactivating the idled reactors based on the evaluation which failed to examine local municipalities’ evacuation plans in the event of a severe accident.

Citizens staged a rally in front of the local branch, shouting, “Stop the restart!” and “Decommission all reactors!”

Horikiri Tokiko, representing one of the civic organizations, demanded that the regulatory body withdraw its draft, saying, “The administration should listen to the voices of local residents.”

That day, protest rallies took place in the prefectural capital of Kagoshima City and in front of the NRA headquarters in Tokyo’s Minato Ward as well. In Kagoshima, a 22-year-old man said, “The power supply is sufficient without nuclear power generation. Did the Abe government forget sufferers of the 2011 meltdown accident at the Fukushima power plant?”

Past related article:
> Half the population of city near Sendai NPP opposes nuclear restart [June 26, 2014]