Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and Osaka Gov Ichiro Matsui on Tuesday met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura in Tokyo to explain their opposition to an early restart of two reactors at the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture.
Hashimoto has been a strong vocal critic of the central government's claim that it has the sole right to make a final decision on whether or not to restart nuclear reactors. The government says that if at least two of the Oi reactors are not restarted, the Kansai area will experience a power shortage during the summer.
Hashimoto said that the ruling Democratic Party of Japan must not withhold information from the public about the nuclear reactors and urged the public not to be fooled, TV Asahi reported.
Hashimoto told Fujimura that eight conditions, drawn up by a panel of experts at an energy summit in Osaka earlier this month, must be met before the Oi reactors can be restarted. They include widening the area of consent, in which Kansai Electric must get local residents' approval, to 100 kilometers around the Oi plant. That would encompass Osaka and parts of Shiga, Kyoto and Nara prefectures.
Other conditions state that stress tests must be based on more stringent criteria, a nuclear regulatory agency must be independent of the government and a permanent disposal site for spent nuclear fuel needs to be found.
Hashimoto reaffirmed that the Osaka government, which owns 8.9% of Kansai Electric Co, is planning to exercise its shareholder rights at the utility’s general meeting in June to propose a total abolition of nuclear power in the area.
The Osaka mayor also indicated that if the central government ignores the views of local residents in areas where there are nuclear power plants, his political party, the Osaka Ishin no Kai, will run in the next upper house election on an anti-nuclear platform.
Meanwhile, Fukui Gov Issei Nishikawa said Tuesday that the local communities which host nuclear power plants must make the final decision on their restart. He called for an independent panel of researchers to check the government's claims, TV Asahi reported.
Earlier Tuesday, the governors of Shiga and Kyoto prefectures called on the central government to provide a clear explanation as to how it arrived at the conclusion that the Oi reactors meet the government's safety levels.
© Japan Today
16 Comments
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Yubaru
Some of these "terms" are impossible, just what Hashimoto wants! Including Osaka in the ring puts the power company right into his hands.
some14some
two short of Ten Commandments, central govt will ignore all.
gaijinTechie
Well put! That's the gist of what's happening in Japan.
...with one correcrion: it would be prudent to speak of "IAEA lead by Amano" instead of just "IAEA".
ubikwit
more populist political gamesmanship by Hashimoto.
and what would a real "panel of experts" have to say about anything like an "area of consent".
nuclear power should be phased out, but that won't happen overnight.
in the meantime, safe operation of plants that will be operating has to be facilitated so that the economy is not further impacted.
all this hype about "running on an anti-nuclear" platform is also nothing but an empty political gesture.
gogogo
Again, they are not asking the people they are asking "the experts" ... who are pro nuclear power
WilliB
Cheap lawyer politics by Hashimoto. His "conditions" are designed to be impossible to meet.
YuriOtani
When there is a power shortage this summer, they should turn off all power to the city and prefecture government buildings and then all of the American bases. What this deleted wants is impossible.
Dave Louthan
I think the citizens should turn Fukushima Daichi into a public bath.
smithinjapan
"Meanwhile, Fukui Gov Issei Nishikawa said Tuesday that the local communities which host nuclear power plants must make the final decision on their restart"
Until they disagree with you... then you'll be saying their concern is 'understood' but irrelevant.
Yuri: "When there is a power shortage this summer, they should turn off all power to the city and prefecture government buildings and then all of the American bases."
Leave it to Yuri to bring in his personal baggage about bases in Okinawa on an article about reactors in Fukui being restarted. Way to go, Yuri!
YuriOtani
smithinjapan, you used the wrong pronoun.
Shivajirao Tipirneni
Zichi is correct i n saying that Fukushima Explosion taught good lessons that unless you are able to prove that the plant can always get the reactors attain a cold shut down and also the heat sink,you cannot treat thde reactors as safe ones.Hence the conditions presented by some politicians to the Government cannot solve the problem except that it amounts to throwing a stone in the waters so that some politicians stand to gain.Public intefrests are paramount and so all people must demand for permanent cxlosure of all the reactors.No Bargains.
Raul Eduardo Vinas
Well, if the nuclear industry can not comply with the conditions is only because it is intrinsically unsafe. If the conditions are impossible to meet, humankind is not ready to use nuclear.
SquidBert
@Raul
Great first post! You really cant put it in any simpler terms than that.
Michael Craig
Well, he is the political superstar! What would Osaka-fu be like without him?