Distrust of the central government's conclusion that the Oi No. 3 and No. 4 reactors are safe to restart and doubts over Kansai Electric Power Co.'s predictions of possible blackouts without them have grown in Kansai this week.
Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada and Shiga Gov. Yukiko Kada, who oppose an immediate restart of the reactors in neighboring Fukui Prefecture upped the political stakes Tuesday, calling on Tokyo to strengthen security and disaster response measures with local governments that lie within a planned 30-km-radius Urgent Protective Action Planning Zone, where residents would be asked to prepare for evacuation depending on the situation in the case of a severe accident. "Some 68,000 people live within 30 km of the Oi reactors, and Lake Biwa, the water source for 14.5 million people, also sits within this zone. If there is an accident at the Oi plant, our two prefectures will also suffer damage," Yamada and Kada said in a joint statement.
Pressure over the past few days from those who want the Oi reactors to restart has been growing. On Monday, Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Yoshito Sengoku told an audience in Nagoya that a total halt of all reactors would be akin to "mass suicide."