A scheduled public hearing on the planned construction of a Chugoku Electric Power Co. nuclear plant in the town of Kaminoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, erupted into turmoil Tuesday as hundreds of protesters surrounded the site.
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| Hundred of protesters gather Tuesday at the site of a public hearing. |
The hearing was sponsored by the the Natural Resources and Energy Agency under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to mark the first such hearing in the country since the deadly criticality accident in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, in September 1999.
But about 200 local residents opposed to Chugoku Electric Power's plan staged a sit-in in front of the hall where the hearing was scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m., blocking agency officials and other participants from entering. The protesters, whose ranks swelled to about 600, called the event a mere formality and said that the plant, and its two reactors, will be built anyway.
The hearing started shortly before noon with agency chief Masaharu Fujitomi and other agency officials present. As part of the hearing, 20 local residents were chosen to state their opinions, with about 300 others given gallery seats. The residents' representatives gave opinions for and against nuclear energy.