A group of Japanese protesters gathered in front of the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on Friday evening to show opposition to the government's decision to restart the world's largest nuclear power plant based in Niigata Prefecture in north central Honshu of Japan due to its aging facilities, inadequate oversight and disregard for historical disasters, Reuters reports.
On Monday, Niigata Prefecture approved the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant, more than a decade after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, local media reported.
The prefectural assembly endorsed the decision of Niigata Governor Hideyo Hanazumi, who backed the restart last month, effectively allowing the restart of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)'s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant.
The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant was among the 54 reactors shut down in Japan following the March 2011 core meltdowns at TEPCO's tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant.
"This marks the first time for TEPCO to restart a nuclear power plant since the Fukushima nuclear accident. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant previously experienced fires during earthquakes, and there are also reports of a fault line in the area. Niigata Prefecture was hit by a major earthquake 50 or 60 years ago. This inevitably makes people feel uneasy," said a protester.
"The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture, which is scheduled to restart, belongs to TEPCO, the company linked to the accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and this is what worries me the most. I believe it should not be restarted under any circumstances," said another protester.
The protesters said that although more than 14 years have passed since the Fukushima accident, issues such as the resettlement of evacuees and the rising incidence of thyroid cancer among children in the disaster area have not been properly addressed, and the relevant responsibilities of the Japanese government have not been established.
"The Fukushima nuclear accident is far from over. There are still 20,000 to 30,000 people in a state of refuge, and children are suffering from thyroid cancer. The government refuses to acknowledge any connection between this and the nuclear accident, which is utterly absurd. Now, they even want to push for the restart of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant," said a protester.
In addition, the protesters expressed dissatisfaction with the Liberal Democratic Party's discussions on revising the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, believing that this would lead Japan to repeat the mistakes of war.
"Japan is heading towards war. Eighty years have passed since the end of World War II, and that's precisely why we must not repeat past mistakes. Although we are all getting old, we still need to pass these lessons on to young people so that they can live in peace and pursue peace," said another protester.
Hit by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and an ensuing tsunami on March 11, 2011, the Fukushima nuclear plant suffered core meltdowns that released radiation, resulting in a level-7 nuclear accident, the highest on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.
