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Tourism The Casualty For Radiation Leak City
Kashiwazaki, Japan (AFP) Aug 07, 2007 Staring at the few carefree teenagers frolicking about in the water, beach worker Hitoshi Arakawa was full of resentment over a leak at a nearby nuclear plant. "They say the exposure level won't harm people's health, but the very fact that there was radiation leakage kills businesses like ours," Arakawa said furiously, with unsold stocks of corn piled up under his table. Arakawa, 42, is one of the seasonal workers who set up food and drink booths during the summer on Kujiranami beach, only 10 kilometres (six miles) down the seashore from the world's largest nuclear power plant. A powerful 6.8 Richter-scale quake hit on July 16, causing smoke to billow out from an electrical facility at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant and leaking radioactive water into the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said radioactive particles came out of an exhaust pipe filter at the plant, some 250 kilometres northwest of Tokyo. The company said the radiation from the leaks was far below levels people would naturally breathe in through the air. But authorities have accused the media of exaggerating the risks, tainting the city's image. Kashiwazaki, which prides itself on producing good rice and sake, would have otherwise attracted large crowds of summer vacationers for fresh seafood and a beautiful coastline. "Compared with last year, we see only 10 percent or fewer customers here this year," said Koichi Sato, 59, idly sitting on a plastic beach chair. Sato, who has run a beach hotel as a family business over the past four decades, said some 80 percent of this summer's reservations were cancelled following the reports about the radiation leakage. "When the nuclear plant project was first discussed, opposing voices were killed and ignored by those saying the majority of the locality backed it," Sato said. "But when something like this happens, it's businesses like ours that pick up the damage." Japan, despite its propensity for earthquakes, relies on nuclear power for nearly one-third of its needs as it has virtually no natural energy resources of its own. Many local residents here are especially spiteful as they feel they are put at risk so the mega plant can generate electricity to run Tokyo. "I want to see the TEPCO president, the head of the plant and the mayor of Kashiwazaki all get in the ocean and tell people it's safe," Arakawa said. "Maybe Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe should do that too." But feelings about the nuclear plant remain mixed even in the tourist industry of Kashiwazaki. Chihiro Kinefuchi, 53, the union leader of beach hotel and restaurant owners on the Kujiranami beach and vice chairman of Kashiwazaki's tourism association, remembers he took the pro-plant side when the plan came up 30 years ago. "We considered the positive economic effects like employment that it would bring to the city," he said. But over the years, the power company lost local people's confidence due to a lack of transparency, he said. It again came under criticism following the earthquake for initially underreporting the leakage level. To dispel public fears over nuclear safety, the local government requested a visit by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is conducting a four-day inspection this week. While some residents hoped the inspectors would verify safety and bring tourists back, Kinefuchi was sceptical that they could. "I can't help wondering how many people out there really understand what the IAEA is," he said.
Source: Agence France-Presse Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Civil Nuclear Energy Science, Technology and News Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
The Iran Nuke Industry Row
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Aug 07, 2007A group of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Iran to visit a heavy-water reactor being built near Arak, in the center of the country. This time, the Iranians are ready to give the IAEA exhaustive answers to questions about their experiments with plutonium and their uranium-enrichment program. This is a real breakthrough in Tehran's long-running dispute with the nuclear watchdog. In the middle of July, Iran announced its readiness to resume contacts with the IAEA. Foreign Ministry spokesman Muhammad Ali Hosseini explained, "Our dialogue with the West on this problem has become more realistic and rational." |
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