SATSUMASENDAI: As part of a plan to restart its nuclear industry, Japan began a controversial consultation process with local residents near idled reactors that was criticised for failing to give everyone a say.
More than a year after Japan’s last reactor was shut down in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, officials began a series of town hall meetings to explain the approval process that cleared the Sendai plant in the southwest of the country for restart.
But local authorities set strict ground rules for the first meeting in Satsumasendai, the coastal city of 98,000 people 1,000 kilometres southwest of Tokyo that hosts the two-reactor Kyushu Electric Power Co facility.
“As we saw in Fukushima, once there’s an accident, the impact is felt across a large region,” said Makoto Matsuzaki, an anti-nuclear legislator for Kagoshima prefecture, where Satsumasendai is located.
“They face that risk but have no rights and no say,” said the Japanese Communist Party assemblywoman. “It’s like going to get a risky surgery at a hospital without giving your consent.”
More than 160,000 people were forced to flee their homes after the triple meltdowns at Fukushima, the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, and towns closest to the Tokyo Electric Power Co plant remain off limits.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to bring reactors back online once they pass tougher security checks. Reuters
