Appeal from Kyoto, Now at Six Months since Fukushima

Appeal from Kyoto, Now at Six Months since Fukushima
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More than six months have passed since the accident of Fukushima nuclear power plants and the nuclear disaster caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11. People have begun discussing overall Japan what the policies of nuclear power generation and energy of Japan, their lifestyle and the materialistic civilization and the relation between local community and central government should be. And many people have begun requiring the energy policy without depending on nuclear power generation.

We, citizens living in Kyoto which is located within thirty to eighty kilometer radius from Wakasa Bay area where fourteen nuclear power plants are densely situated, must confront squarely its reality and risk and start investigating seriously at the level of municipality and individual citizens what the policy of nuclear power generation and energy should be. Kyoto is a city of universities and various studies with living history and culture, and also a town of sightseeing attracting fifty million tourists a year. We are learning that once a severe accident of nuclear power plant happens, it becomes uncontrollable, far beyond human knowledge and experience to cope with. If Lake Biwa is contaminated by such an accident, it would uproot culture, heritage and industry created by our predecessors and make people’s living in Kyoto severely damaged for a long period of time.

Also we have another difficult reality that we have to confront. Of the fourteen nuclear power plants at Wakasa Bay, eight plants have become old enough to be decommissioned, having been operating more than thirty years, five plants more than thirty-five years and two plants, Tsuruga No.1 and Mihama No.1, very surprisingly more than forty years. Moreover we have “Monju” plant, a fast breeder reactor fueled by plutonium, having been stopped by the important accident since 1997. And to tell what is also important, it is pointed out that surroundings of Wakasa Bay exist on seismic area and tension accumulates there widely due to the influence of the late great earthquake, and great inland earthquakes will occur successively caused by active fault lines. We must not forget that four great earthquakes over M7 actually happened respectively in 1662, 1891, 1927 and 1948 in this area.

From the very beginning, the nuclear power generation needs safety of highest order. But the Fukushima nuclear accident has made it quite clear that the present technology of nuclear power plant has the possibility of becoming uncontrollable once such an accident happens, and the local community collapses subsequently. And human beings have not prepared to answer how they can treat a large amount of spent fuel called “nuclear waste.”

Can we ever permit such “risk” and leave it as it is to the future generations? Badly needed are dialogue and discussion among us facing up to reality, remembering our experience of making the Constitution of Japan out of the ravages of war and also learning from the decision of the German people to phase out nuclear power generation after twenty years of national discussion. Isn’t it high time for us scientists, experts and intellectuals of various disciplines to start dialogue, speak out and act overcoming political and ideological positions also with the perspective of “good-by to nuclear power plant”?

Now we call on you from Kyoto so that dialogue, cooperation and support will prevail widely among us.

1. Work together to change completely the present nuclear policy, introduce the technology of renewable energy as a top priority and realize a society of low consumption of energy in order to reduce nuclear power plant to zero.

2. Protect rich environment, industry and life in collaboration with the people of community where nuclear power plants are located, appealing from Kyoto with the slogan “No More Nuclear Power Plants in Wakasa!”, for it is stupid and insane to have a dangerous nuclear power plant concentrated area at Wakasa Bay within thirty to eighty kilometer radius from Kyoto.

3. Have dialogues and discussions also with the people who have been in favor of nuclear power generation so far thinking that it is necessary and inevitable, and pursue persistently Kyoto and Japan where energy democracy and energy autonomy are realized.

4. Collect approval and message from ten thousand people. Start the movement from Kyoto now.