Japanese anti-nuclear protestors marched through Tokyo on October 13, calling on the government not to restart the nuclear power plants that were close in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that damaged the nuclear plant in Fukushima two years ago.
Asahi Shimbun reports:
With all the nation’s 50 nuclear reactors offline, an estimated 40,000 people attended a series of demonstrations in central Tokyo on Oct. 13 organized by three anti-nuclear civic groups to express their opposition to the government’s push for restarts.
In the events called “One for No Nukes,” participants raised their voices in protest, saying, “No to restarts.”
The Metropolitan Coalition against Nukes organized the protests along with two civic groups “Sayonara Genpatsu 1,000 mannin Action” (Good-bye to nuclear power through action by 10 million people) and “Genpatsu wo Nakusu Zenkoku Renrakukai” (National conference on abolishing nuclear power plants).
At a rally held in the early afternoon at Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Public Hall in Chiyoda Ward, Nobel Prize-winning writer Kenzaburo Oe, a member of Sayonara Genpatsu 1,000 mannin Action, appealed for more efforts to stop the first restart of any of the reactors.
The fact that a sizeable number of Japanese people came together to express their opposition to nuclear power, may seem reassuring. Japan knows only too well the destructive power of nuclear materials when used as weapons of war. And there are fears that this earthquake-prone series of islands is too unstable for nuclear power plants.
Missing the main point
But the Japanese people – and the world for that matter – appear to be missing the main point or are just not fully aware of the danger posed by the damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima, just 140 miles or 240 kilometers north of Tokyo, with its population of about 30 million people.
At this particular point in time, the real danger is not that posed by the restarting of nuclear power plants. The real danger lies in Fukushima.
Two years on, the Japanese government and Tokyo Power Electric Co (TEPCO) are struggling to deal with the daily spillage and deal with the radioactive fuel rods, precariously exposed.
The fact that a senior adviser to TEPCO is calling for international help is telling. (See full story HERE)
TEPCO has been broadly criticized by regulators for a string of recent announcements related to the cleanup efforts. Tanks holding contaminated water were found to be leaking, and radioactive water from the damaged reactors is spilling into the sea.
Only part of a much bigger problem
But this is only part of a much bigger – and more scary – problem.
Experts are warning that not only could it take decades to clean up the nuclear power plant at Fukushima but that the fuel rods and their containment is highly unstable.
See the full story, written by Akio Matsumara in 2012, HERE.
As he explains simply:
“Many of our readers might find it difficult to appreciate the actual meaning of the figure, yet we can grasp what 85 times more Cesium-137 than the Chernobyl would mean. It would destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to the pugilistic debate over nuclear power plants. This is an issue of human survival.”
Fears are being voiced that should there be a meltdown, it could be catastrophic, not just for Japan, and its capital lying so close, but for the world, particularly the Northern Hemisphere.
The Japanese authorities have been painfully slow in dealing with the problem, partly because it is beyond TEPCO’s capability. They do not have the skills, knowledge or properly trained workers for a task or set of tasks that would be handled by computer-operated robots, yet is now impossible to tackle like this due to the nature of the damage at the plant.
Mainstream media in Japan and abroad has failed to convey the gravity of the problem, and the international community is doing far to little, if anything, to help.
As Akio Matsumara wrote in a recent story, entitled, “Japan, Swallow Your Pride and Ask for Help”:
“Prime Minister Abe should use his hard-won political independence to stave off a crisis. He has the opportunity to overcome Japan’s incapacitating national pride and ask for the best technical support and expertise the world can offer. The world would no doubt quickly come to Japan’s aid. Asking for assistance should be his first governing priority. Besides, it is good politics. How can he build a strong Japanese economy if a top export is radioactivity?”
