The mayor of Nagoya lashed out at the government Monday for pushing to get two offline reactors restarted at the Oi nuclear plant 120 km west in Fukui Prefecture, saying a major accident at the complex could contaminate the Kiso River, which provides water to people of his city.
Mayor Takashi Kawamura told reporters, "I lodged a serious protest" over the push to restart the Oi reactors, during a meeting with vice industry minister Yasuhiro Nakane in Tokyo, arguing that there has yet to be completed a thorough verification on what caused the triple-meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
Kawamura handed Nakane a petition calling on the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which is under the industry ministry, to compile a nuclear hazard map as quickly as possible to deal with any accident that could occur at the Oi plant.
Leaders of several municipalities near the Oi plant, including the Shiga and Kyoto governors, have expressed misgivings about restarting the reactors.