Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Japanese Church says farewell to nuclear

Hokkaido Electric Power’s engineers have begun the process of shutting down Unit 3 of the Tomari nuclear power plant on the island of Hokkaido. 

One year after the Fukushima disaster, and after a quarter of a century, Japan will no longer have nuclear-generated electricity.
 
“A new era in Japan without nuclear energy has begun,’’ was the forceful proclamation of Gyoshu Otsu, a monk who protested, along with a small crowd, in front of the Ministry of Industry in Tokyo, which oversees the country’s power plants.

“The generation of nuclear power is a criminal act,’’ said Otsu, wearing the white clothes of the Buddhists: “If we leave the situation as it is now, another accident will occur.” Protest organizer Masao Kimura said: “This is a historic day. Now we can show that we will be able to live without nuclear power.’’ 
 
Another 5,000 people held a rally in a park in Tokyo to express satisfaction with the decision, not at all worried about the Government’s warnings on the supply of electricity: ‘‘Sayonara, nuclear power,” they chanted.
 
And the Catholic Church reaffirmed its opposition to atomic energy, forcefully reiterating the note of 8 November entitled “Abolish Nuclear Plants Immediately: Facing the Tragedy of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Disaster,” issued by the Japanese Conference of Bishops. 

It says: “In the 2001 message, ‘A Bow To Life,’ we, the Japanese bishops, were not able to go so far as to urge the immediate abolition of nuclear power plants. However, after being confronted with the Fukushima nuclear disaster, we have repented and changed our positions. Today, we wish to make an appeal to immediately ban all nuclear power plants in Japan. “

In the original Japanese, the appeal states that the message of 2001 had set out a path for the abandonment of nuclear energy. 

The bishops did say, however, said that they were “in a position to allow” the continuation of nuclear power plants.