November 99

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

Japan's Nuclear "Event"

Satomi Oba, Director of Plutonium Action Hiroshima, sent the following message to the Women and Life on Earth Network list. (For information on WLEN, contact Anna Gyorgy at <annag@afribone.net.ml> or Jean Grossholtz at <jgrossho@mtholyoke.edu>.) Messages of support for anti-nuclear activities and calls for a transition to a non-nuclear energy path for Japan can be sent via Email to Satomi Oba at <dogwood@muc.biglobe.ne.jp>.

We had a terrible accident in Tokaimura village, starting Thursday morning, September 30. Although Tokaimura is far from Hiroshima, I have been tremendously shocked at the news.

Two workers were badly affected, and more were exposed to radiation (a total of 49, the authorities said, but that number is increasing). The company JCO has produced 40 percent of the nuclear fuel for Japanese reactors. This time the accident occurred during the process that converts uranium to fuel for the Joyo experimental fast breeder reactor (FBR), a dangerous technology which has been dropped by other nuclearized countries. I am almost convinced that Joyo is a bomb program, for the FBR can produce plutonium of high purity, 97-98 %, which could be used for a nuclear weapon.

There have been several serious accidents in Japan in recent years, and they have all been related to the plutonium cycle program that the Japanese government is promoting. Now is the time to change the dangerous program, we believe.

However, our government never thinks of getting rid of the folly. They don't want transparency of information. They stated "Safety" only two days after the accident, before details of the accident were found.

Radioactive Iodine 131 has been found by an independent scientist. There is no governmental information about what kind of nuclides and how much radioactivity were released. It is terrible that, according to the media, very few residents of Tokaimura seem to have been informed of the danger of radiation and radioactivity. The residents who live within a 350-meter radius, later a 10 km radius, were told to stay inside their houses, but Japanese houses are not designed well enough to protect residents from radiation.

We saw school children going home without any protection, waving at the TV cameras. We now know there is no adequate evacuation system by the government or the local authorities. Moreover, as the residents and even the school teachers were always told that the nuclear facilities are safe, they were not prepared for such a catastrophe at all.

Tokaimura is the village where Japanese nuclear development started, and has many nuclear facilities: nuclear power plants, plutonium fuel production plant, reprocessing plant, Joyo fast breeder reactor, and small factories like JCO. Tokaimura and the vicinity are like a huge nuclear complex. Therefore, the present situation in Tokaimura casts a shadow on all nuclear sites in Japan. The industries and the government intend to put all responsibility for the accident on JCO's loose management, though the entire nuclear system and policy should really be questioned.

We are organizing protest actions on the street, a letter or post card campaign against the government, and so on. The whole Japanese society has been awfully shocked at the accident. But there has not been a great movement on the surface. We Japanese are strangely a quiet people.

It is very sad that many opinion leaders in Hiroshima, such as former Mayor Hiraoka and the Hibakusha [A-bomb victims] organization still protect the nuclear industry. They state that Japan must continue nuclear energy policy carefully, in spite of the recent Tokaimura accident. International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War Japan has kept silent on this issue.

On the other hand, when I talked with some atomic bomb survivors, they were really angry and afraid. Ms. Suzuko Numata, a 74-year-old survivor, said: "I never want to be exposed to radiation twice in my life!" She is a very active survivor although she is not so strong, having lost one of her legs because of the Hiroshima A-bombing. I wish that the media would report such survivors' comments widely.

I am really afraid that another accident, a more serious one, may happen if we don't stop this crazy program immediately."

Satomi Oba