The Invisible Dragon

What is the Nuclear State?

There were not many people who foresaw the March 11th nuclear reactor accident in Fukushima. Most of us were at a loss, not knowing how to react, how to respond, when it broke out. At least I was at a loss. I had never imagined that the buildings encasing reactors could have exploded. Honestly, I expected that the accident would be much smaller, like the one at Kashiwazaki Kariwa reactor during the Niigata Earthquake in 2007. I did think that it could release radioactive materials, but only temporarily, and that radioactive iodine could reach Tokyo, but much less. So when I evacuated with my daughter to my hometown in Aichi Prefecture in the early morning of March 12th, I thought that our refuge would be only for the time being.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority released some of the images on June 4 of damaged equipment that was used to cool a reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Louise K. Comfort University of Pittsburgh Ikc@pitt.edu Aya Okada Doshisha University/University of Pittsburgh ayaokada102@gmail.com Designing a Knowledge Commons to support global inquiry Large-sc...

On Jan 18th, prior to the third trial of the Sendai Supreme Court、the Fukushima Evacuee Trail Group held a press conference at the Council Hall. In the confe...

A German police officer uses a Geiger counter to measure the radiation of a Castor container on a transport train, during a stop in Neunkirchen near Saarbruecken.

In March 2011 disaster struck the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. This incident compelled me to re-examine exactly how Japan became a nuclear energy giant, despite having suffered the consequences of nuclear weapons three times – the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Bikini Atoll hydrogen bomb test. I took a look back at the 1950s when nuclear power generation was first adopted and examined some of the records of the time.

From reading opinion pieces and documents written by physicist Dr Sakata Shoichi, it was apparent that conclusions reached in national debate among particle and nuclear physicists at the time had influenced the Special Committee for Nuclear Research and the Committee on Problems in Atomic Energy, both of which came under the Science Council of Japan. I also learned that a broad range of scientists at the Science Council of Japan had argued that nuclear energy was an unproven technology, that further research was required to assure completely safe nuclear energy for densely-populated and earthquake-prone Japan in particular, and that the practical application of nuclear power generation was premature. Through democratic debate, scientists from various specialist fields at the time exhibited a social role far greater than scientists of today.

Doesn’t Radiation Discriminate?

O resultado do festival de cinema "Urânio em MoviEmento" de 2013 foi um turbilhão de emoções  e debates levantados pelos filmes, pelo público questionador, pelas entrevistas e pelo fechamento incrível, com lágrimas, samba e caipirinha na noite da premiação. Surpreendentemente o ´Oscar Amarelo` por longametragem de ficção, foi para uma comédia romântica "Atomic Ivan", primeiro filme do famoso diretor de ópera russo Vasiliy Barkhatov e primeira vez que as agências nucleares russas abriram suas portas à sétima arte.

In the last several months, the Abe Shinzo government has favored a rhetoric of economic revival by using nuclear power at home and selling nuclear technology abroad. It appears, however, that only a minority of the Japanese public supports these plans. As the Asahi has reported, polls show that 58% of voters are opposed to Abe’s nuclear plans with only 28% responding that the government should go ahead with restarts. Similarly, a poll carried out by Jiji News Service revealed that 58% “do not support” nuclear exports with only 24% in favor. With news of a new leak or system failure at the site of the Fukushima Daiichi cleanup coming every few weeks, it is little wonder that the population is skeptical about the safety and utility of nuclear power.

Despite resistance by the numbers, however, there is a certain ambivalence evident in Japanese popular views of nuclear power. Despite resistance to the idea of restarts and exports, voters turned the Democratic Party out of power, rejected diverse options on the left, and handed the Liberal Democrats, the most pro-nuclear among major political parties, a landslide election victory in December 2012. As Abe talks of unpopular plant restarts and a strong nuclear export push, he has maintained a very high approval rating. Poll results reported by broadcaster NTV in mid-June have Abe’s overall approval rating at 60.1% with support for the LDP at 47.7%, far ahead of the second place Democrats who garnered a mere 8.6%. These numbers seem to point to a landslide LDP victory in the upcoming July House of Councillors elections. While opposition to nuclear power is clearly there, it has not had a significant impact on LDP support.

One sector of the Japanese public sphere that has maintained anti-nuclear momentum, however, is that of local government. On June 11, the Asahi Shimbun published a piece, included below, detailing the continuing resistance to nuclear restarts at the local level. - See more at: http://japanfocus.org/events/view/185#sthash.WbXK3fQx.dpuf

Join us for an informal discussion about the latest reports from actions within/out Japan and share your thoughts -how are you experiencing the two year anniversary of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe? How can you begin engaging with the ongoing disaster and the people’s actions?

Kaya Hanasaki is a performance artist and activist base in Tokyo. She will join us and talk about her actions with anti-nuclear groups, as well as her everyday life since March 2011.

Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial is a citizen's collective lawsuit demanding the local government of Koriyama City, Fukushima to evacuate the children t...

Aislada por el invisible manto de la radiación, la central nuclear de Fukushima esconde en su interior a miles de trabajadores que, resguardados en sus trajes protectores, luchan contra la crisis atómica en mitad de un paisaje apocalíptico.Fukushima, viaje a las entrañas de la tragedia nuclear.