Original Japanese written by staffer
The English below translated from the original Japanese by Heeday
The English translation edited by Rev. Dr. Henry French, ELCA
(Source: article of September 20th, 2015 edition of the Fukushima Minpo newspaper)
▼Click each image to enlarge it and read the caption.
While the Japanese government is striving to restart the nation’s nuclear power plants (NPPs), 58% of the Japanese citizens surveyed were opposed to it, far exceeding the 37% who were in favor of the restarts, according to a nationwide poll on energy conducted on September 12th and 13th by the Japan Association for Public Opinion Research, of which Fukushima Minpo is a member.
To the question, “Do you think residents around a restarted NPP, in case an accident occurs, can evacuate as planned?” a total of 74% of the respondents replied either “No, I do not think they can” or “No, not very well.” This exceeded by far the total of 25% who replied either “Yes, they can” or “Yes, to some extent.”
Though Kyushu Electric Power last August restarted Unit 1 of its Sendai NPP, located in Kagoshima, Kyushu, most citizens are seriously worried over countermeasures to an accident, as the poll discovered.
The most common reason (39%) to oppose a restart is that “The safety measures are insufficient, such as accident prevention measures of NPPs, resident evacuation plans in case of an accident, etc.,” followed by “They have yet to decide what to do with radioactive waste from NPPs” and “We have yet to bring an end to the disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.”
To the question, “Who do you think should be held responsible for a NPP restart or accident?” 70% replied with “The national government.” This was far greater than the 15% who chose the runner-up reply, “The electric power company,” and 10% who said “The Nuclear Regulation Authority,” which held third place. Still, those parties have yet to clarify who should be held responsible for what.
The poll also asked for the respondents’ opinions about the decommissioning of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi NPP. To this, 87% replied either “Not progressing very smoothly” or “Not progressing smoothly at all.”
When Tokyo invited the 2020 Olympics, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared to the whole world that Fukushima Daiichi’s contaminated water “is under control.” In fact, however, problems involving contaminated water have never been resolved from the time of the meltdown until today. The toughest issue about the decommissioning—the removal of the power plant’s nuclear fuel—has also yet to be resolved. They have not yet confirmed the current state of those melted fuels.
So, the national government keeps ignoring its people’s voices. Then, who does the government’s energy policy actually serve? I am convinced that the government is giving higher priority to something other than the people’s lives.