Asia Without Nuclear

Asia Without Nuclear

Today (April 6, 2011), Korean-Japanese civil organizations held a joint press conference (in the Rachel Carson room, Korea Green Foundation) to begin an aggressive campaign to create an ‘Asia Without Nuclear’. The campaign is a reaction to the Fukushima nuclear accident, and is associated with a number of civil society groups all over the world.
We want a world without nuclear, and believe it is possible.

It is extremely heartbreaking to watch the tragic scenes unfold in Japan at the moment, even after the tsunami and earthquake have ceased the tragedies continue . Hundreds of thousands of Japanese are looking for shelter after leaving their hometowns due to the nuclear accident in Fukushima, which is still leaking radioactive material, with devastating effects to the local people. We all wish the accident to be settled down as soon as possible, and thank all the workers who are courageously working to prevent a furthering worsening of the situation at personal cost of exposure to radioactive material.

The Fukushima nuclear accident has already become the worst nuclear disaster in history, far beyond the level of the Chernobyl accident. The nuclear disaster is the responsibility of the Japanese government and nuclear society that have alleged a myth of nuclear safety and put the nuclear power plants back into operation. In doing so, they have ignored the warnings from citizens all over the world, and have worsened the nuclear disaster due to an idle response and attitude  toward reducing the size of the accident. The government still haven’t specifically informed the general public or neighbouring countries of the actual conditions of the nuclear accident nor released information on radioactive pollution. The Japanese government and the Tokyo Electric Power thus must provide precise and specific information on radioactive contamination and take more aggressive action to protect Japanese citizens in danger.

We believe that such a nuclear tragedy must not be repeated, and would argue that the disaster calls into question whether or not nuclear power plants are necessary at all. We can no longer openly trust assertions that nuclear energy is a viable alternative to solving climate change, that there is no other energy source which could substitute nuclear energy or that government and nuclear industries can manage the nuclear power plants safely. In North-East Asia, China, Korea, and Japan, nuclear power represents a preferred source or energry with a concentration of over 52% of nuclear power plants currently under construction. We could drive out nuclear power plants from the world only if an earnest declaration on a nuclear-free world could be conducted in the areas where nuclear power has had such negative consequences.

We conceive that the nuclear accident in Fukushima should be the starting point for closure and abandonment of the nuclear power project worldwide. Citizens all over the world have already started to make their voices heard, and reject nuclear power as a safe and viable source of energy. Lots of citizens in Europe including Germany, which have already made movements toward nuclear-free development after the affects of the Chernobyl accident, and in Asian countries such as Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines, and Taiwan(Province of China) are against nuclear power. Now, the entire world, working alongside each other, should endeavor toward nuclear safety and a nuclear-free world. With these efforts, nuclear accidents like that of Fukushima will not happen again; we must make a peaceful and just world without nuclear power.