Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. 
Advocacy & campaigns
Urgent International Appeal
Restart of Ohi Nuclear Power - A threat to international security
2012-05-31, Issue 587
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/advocacy/82598
Printer friendly version
The critical condition of Fukushima Unit 4 is attracting international attention as the US military and defense newspaper “Stars and Stripes,” the Washington Street Journal and the New York Times began warning of its risks. Finally, even the Japanese media started to report on this issue.
Since the beginning of May, several international no-nukes and environmental organizations such as Abolition 2000, ISDE Italia Network, and civic groups in California have released international appeals regarding Japanese nuclear power policy calling for a total moratorium on all Japanese nuclear power and immediate intervention to secure the Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool. On 29 May it was widely reported by international media that radioactive cesium from Fukushima was found in tuna caught off U.S. It is clear that Fukushima is not only a Japanese issue but also of international concern.
We jointly with Green・Action and the endorsement of 72 Japanese civil organizations have submitted our petition “An Urgent Request for UN Intervention to Stabilize the Fukushima Unit 4 Spent Nuclear Fuel” to Prime Minister Noda and UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon on April 30. As of today, the total number of civic organizations from all over the world which have endorsed the petition has reached 324. As a response to Prime Minister Noda’s announcement to restart the Ohi nuclear reactors, we appeal to Mr. Noda as follows:
1. Stop the restart of the Ohi nuclear reactors to show that Japan is a responsible member of the international community.
2. Acknowledge that restarting nuclear power is an issue of a totally different dimension from the supply and demand of electricity and take the decision to put an end to nuclear power.
Why this appeal?
1. The Japanese government should put all its efforts into stabilizing the Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool as a top priority.
2. Japan as the country which is responsible for exposing the whole world to such a risk of radioactive contamination and which has failed to stabilize the Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool is not qualified to generate any nuclear power.
3. The biggest nuclear threat to the world today is not any North Korean nuclear weapon but rather the Japanese Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool.
4. The Japanese government is responsible for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, creating 160,000 radiation refugees, exposing children to the risk of radiation, and destroying the lives of the 1.8 million residents who remain in Fukushima. Many more Japanese outside Fukushima are also forced to live with a high risk of radiation exposure. It is totally out of the question that the Japanese government which has so failed its people should restart any nuclear power, least of all, the Ohi nuclear reactors.
5. The Japanese government has not learned from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The fact that a restart of nuclear power is being discussed as a matter of simply providing sufficient electric power in itself proves this..
6. A “nuclear dictatorship without ethics or responsibility” continues to exist to this date, and it still controls Japanese energy policy.
7. If the restart of Ohi is forced to go ahead, the rest of the nuclear power plants in Japan will also be restarted.
8. Some experts are warning that another big earthquake may happen this very year. If they are right, another Fukushima disaster will be inevitable.
9. As a responsible member of the international community, the Japanese prime minister should not make a decision which exposes the world to a new risk of radioactive contamination.
10. What Prime Minister Noda should do as the prime minister of the country which caused such a nuclear disaster is swiftly put an end to nuclear power. Unless such a decision is taken, it will be impossible for the prime minister to regain the confidence of his own people or the international community.
We call on all governments and citizens of the world to stand with us and express your appeals to Prime Minister Noda before he makes a final decision on the restart of Ohi nuclear power.
May 31, 2012
Shut Tomari
1-2 Higashisapporo, Shiroishi-ku, Sapporo Japan
Post Box 003-0006 TEL:+81-(0)90-2695-1937 FAX:+81-(0)826-3796
Readers' Comments
Let your voice be heard. Comment on this article.