Hirohito Ono: We cannot allow return to nuclear power without proper debate June 29, 2013 By HIROHITO ONO/ Director of The Asahi Shimbun Editorial Board The run-up to July's Upper House election will likely focus on the economy and foreign policy issues, but one topic that must be discussed is the Abe administration's nuclear energy policy. In its platform for the December Lower House election, the Liberal Democratic Party said it "would seek the establishment of an economic and social structure that did not have to depend on nuclear power." Although that was not a position seeking to move away from nuclear energy, it did imply efforts to think about nuclear energy in relative terms. However, even that stance has become much more ambiguous. The Abe administration is leaning toward the resumption of operations at nuclear reactors. And it still insists on pushing through with the troubled nuclear fuel recycling program. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited India, Turkey and central Europe with a sales pitch for Japan's nuclear power technology. The LDP's Upper House campaign platform contains no mention of moving away from a dependence on nuclear energy. Instead, it calls for making the utmost effort to gain the understanding of local communities in preparation for bringing idle reactors online. This gives the impression that the Abe administration is seeking nothing less than the return of an economic and social structure dependent on nuclear power. What cannot be overlooked is that rather than be upfront about moving back toward such a dependence, the administration is trying to achieve that objective with little in the way of real debate. For example, in the recently released white paper on energy, past goals of ending operations at all nuclear plants were erased. It is undemocratic to return to a dependence on nuclear energy without debate. After the Upper House election, the possibility exists that another national election will not be held over the following three years. The Abe administration should clearly state its case to the public in the Upper House election. REALITY IN FUKUSHIMA Even if Japan did decide to immediately end operations at all nuclear plants, one plant would remain where decommissioning work would not be easy: the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The actual conditions within the crippled plant's reactors remain unknown. Work continues to cool the fuel within the reactors, but problems have arisen in how to process the cooling water. There is yet no end in sight for decontaminating areas polluted by radioactive materials. Evacuees from the nuclear accident face uncertain futures. Many people are still struggling with various issues, not only at the plant site, but in the surrounding municipalities, within local governments as well as in the locations where the evacuees have moved to. That struggle will likely not completely end even after a few decades have passed. We also cannot totally eliminate the risk that another similar accident could take place during that period of time. Since March 11, 2011, Japan has entered a different age. Unlike the time before the Great East Japan Earthquake, Japan has become a nation that possesses a dangerous, crippled nuclear plant. The nation likely does not have the ability to cope with another accident of a similar scale. If that is the case, the only alternative will be to reduce the number of nuclear plants as quickly as possible while making safety standards stricter and implementing measures to prepare for the likelihood of another accident. That is the brutally frank reality Japan now faces. A TURNING POINT However, the policies being pushed by the Abe administration do not appear to arise from an understanding of such a reality. That was underscored by the recent comment by Sanae Takaichi, the LDP policy chief, about no one having died as a direct result of the Fukushima nuclear accident, as well as the formation of a Diet members' league seeking the resumption of operations at nuclear reactors. It appears that, in the end, this administration would like nothing better than to return to an energy policy--almost intact--that the nation was following before the Fukushima nuclear accident. The administration may want to place that accident within parenthesis when considering our contemporary history so that it would be possible to one day skip over it when reviewing history. In fact, that accident should be considered a historic event that permanently altered Japan's course. The election should not be allowed to end without any debate on Fukushima.
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