A private organization lobbying to phase out atomic power is celebrating four decades of efforts to encourage public discourse and self-education about nuclear issues, as concern grows over reactor restarts just four years after the Fukushima meltdowns.
The Citizens' Nuclear Information Center was launched in September 1975 at a time when people were raising their voices against nuclear power projects. Since then, Tokyo-based CNIC has gathered and analyzed related information to provide it to the public through its newsletters and website, while training "citizen scientists" who are capable of addressing nuclear issues from the perspective of ordinary people.
"I believe we should not depend on nuclear technologies that deprive us of our right to life," said Yukio Yamaguchi, co-director of the nonprofit organization. "We cannot achieve (a nonnuclear society), however, by merely saying 'No' to them.