Editorial Apr 23, 2012

Neglect of nuclear regulation

The Nuclear Regulatory Agency was originally scheduled to be set up on April 1. Although the Noda Cabinet endorsed a bill to establish the agency on Jan. 31 and send it to the Diet that day, the Diet has yet to start deliberating on ...

Editorial Apr 22, 2012

Cutting CO₂ without reactors

An Environment Ministry draft report states that Japan can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent without relying on nuclear power. This news is most welcome after the dangers of nuclear power were starkly exposed by the Fukushima nuclear fiasco. The report suggests ...

Editorial Mar 25, 2012

Nuclear safety studies torpedoed

Of all the shocking revelations over the past year about nuclear power plants in Japan, the recent revelation that the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency canceled safety studies in 2006 is one of the most exasperating. The agency responsible for nuclear ...

Editorial Mar 18, 2012

Time for antinuclear protests

While Japan mourned on the first anniversary of the Tohoku disaster last Sunday, many people all over Japan also turned their sorrow into protest. At least 20,000 antinuclear protesters took to the parks and streets of the country to show their resolve against nuclear ...

Commentary Mar 17, 2012

Nuclear agenda after 3/11

by Ramesh Thakur

A year after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11, 2011, all but two of the country’s 54 nuclear reactors are shut down. The Japanese people remain confused, apprehensive and distrustful of government statements and reassurances. The future of the ...

Editorial Jan 22, 2012

Protesting nuclear power

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Yokohama the weekend of Jan. 14-15 to show their support for a nuclear power-free world. Organizers of the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World claimed 6,000 participants from some 30 countries on the first ...