Tokyo, April 11: While Japan is facing a new crisis at Onagawa power plant, thousands of Japanese have taken to the streets of Tokyo to protest the country’s nuclear policies.
About 15,000 Japanese people took to streets in different parts of Tokyo on Sunday, chanting “No to nuclear bombs! No more Fukushima!”
The demonstration was held in protest at the government’s policies regarding Hamaoka nuclear power plant, which is located about 200 kilometers southwest of Tokyo in Shizuoka Prefecture, Kyodo News Agency reported.
Hamaoka plant is built in a region that seismologists believe is well overdue for a massive undersea magnitude-8 or higher earthquake.
Opposition to nuclear power in Japan has grown since a destructive earthquake and tsunami on March 11 set off nuclear problems by knocking out power to cooling systems of reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant and leading to a meltdown and radiation leakage.
The government ordered the evacuation of about 200,000 people living in a 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) radius of the plant, and told people residing between 20 and 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the plant to remain indoors.
Last week Prime Minister Naoto Kan’ special advisor Goshi Hosono said bringing the crisis-hit Fukushima power plant under control and stopping radiation leakage may take “several months.”
On Friday, Onagawa nuclear plant’s operator, Tohoku Electric, said radioactive water has leaked out of the spent fuel pools in reactors No. 1 and 2 after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that jolted Miyagi Prefecture on Thursday.
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said radiation levels outside the plant have not changed and fuel rods are being cooled with one outside power source.
——–Agencies