Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World
Cat Beaton and Peter Watts
Peter Watts is an Arabunna man and co-chair of the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance (ANFA). Cat Beaton is Nuclear Free NT campaigner at the Environment Centre of the NT and an ANFA national committee member. In January, they went to Japan to attend the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World. More than 6000 people attended the conference including 100 international participants from over 30 countries.
As Australians visiting Japan in 2012 we were taken to a fork in the road regarding the future of nuclear power. Prior to March 2011, Japan had 54 nuclear reactors. Hardly any are now in operation − most were closed for safety tests after the March 2011 disaster and most are still facing local community campaigns to keep them closed. The lights are still on and millions are questioning whether or not reactors are the future of Japan.
Many people we met in Japan were confused about the long-term impacts from the Fukushima disaster and the risks of exposure to radiation. People were saying there was not enough information from the government. Independent environmental contamination monitors like SAFECAST were swarming with volunteers and requests for Geiger counters. Japan's science ministry admitted that the US military was provided information about radioactive fallout from Fukushima more than a week before the Japanese public was informed. This was the latest in a string of similar revelations.
Australia is also at a fork in the road. We stare down the barrel of an unprecedented expansion of uranium mining. Business giants want to triple uranium exports to countries like Japan. There are plans to expand BHP Billiton’s Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia and ERA's Ranger uranium mine in NT. Both mine expansions raise important local issues about the creation and long-term management of mountains of radioactive tailings waste, water use, contamination, risks to workers, and increased transport dangers.
Given the unique and dangerous nature of uranium, the industry will never be easy to manage, it will never be cheap to regulate and development will always be meet opposition. Uranium mining is not just an "emotional" issue; it presents serious risks like no other industry. What we are seeing in Japan today is that the fruits of our exports are rotting. The tsunami that led to the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant will be forever etched in the minds of many. It was a moment in time comprehensively covered by just about every TV station and media outlet in the world. And just as well, as this was the way that many in the Fukushima Prefecture found out what was happening.
As the disaster unfolded, a 20 km exclusion zone was established. Over 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes and many are now in temporary accommodation with no plan or direction for the future. Many thousands more live in an area on alert with bags packed and ready to move if the situation at Daiichi worsens.
However, with some radiation readings that are higher outside the exclusion zone and little to no information or direction from the government, the decision to stay or go for those living in the Fukushima prefecture is an agonising one. Along our travels through Japan we met many people who said that they had left the area for fear of radiation. Radiation levels have been detected in the breast milk of mothers and the urine of children. These facts are alarming, and if we were to experience this in Australia we would be up in arms to eliminate the cause, and ensure it never happened again.
We feel great sorrow that Australian uranium was present in all the stricken reactors at Fukushima. As Australians in Japan, it made us feel ashamed and embarrassed. Why aren't we doing anything to help? And why did it take us seven months to find out that our uranium was in use at Fukushima? The Australian Safeguards and Non-Proliferation Office belatedly acknowledged in October: "We can confirm that Australian obligated nuclear material was at the Fukushima Daiichi site ..." Meeting with people from Fukushima was confronting and humbling. It was very hard to look people straight in the eye and hear personal accounts from those in the Fukushima district and in temporary accommodation.
A farmer in Fukushima had to slaughter his herd of cattle as the level of contamination in milk and meat was simply too high to sell. People are buying food from western Japan to avoid eating contaminated food. Farmers are going broke without government assistance as food from the Fukushima prefecture remains on the shelves in supermarkets in Tokyo and beyond. There is a story of a farmer who committed suicide shortly after the March 11 disaster because he had spent years perfecting the quality of his soil, only to learn that the contamination of his land was too high for him to continue farming.
The organisation of mothers, teachers and everyday people was extraordinary. People who had never had concerns about nuclear power and radiation risks are now meeting for study sessions to educate themselves around the risks and probable outcomes that they can expect. Children from Fukushima are facing discrimination in the communities they have evacuated to, treated as if radiation was contagious.
The power generated from the plants in Fukushima was all for export to the bigger cities, particularly Tokyo. The local people feel they have been abandoned, after serving the nation by hosting the power plants. People are angry, active and want answers. There have been calls for corporations who continue to profit from nuclear power to contribute to the enormous costs faced by communities as they manage decontamination, dislocation and loss of livelihood due to the compounded disasters.
We strongly believe that uranium mining companies should also recognise a responsibility to compensate the people of Fukushima. It is sad that the uranium mining companies operating in Australia have turned a blind eye to alarming revelations of safety breaches and safety data falsification in Japan over the past decade. Seeing the devastation from Fukushima made us think about the best way we could provide aid to a country in need. It would be good for Australia to assist with nuclear expertise, monitoring equipment, offers of accommodation or funding. But the best way we can help the people of Japan is by turning off the tap on our uranium mining industry to ensure that we do not fuel further tragedies.
More information about the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World is posted at www.npfree.jp/english.html
Interviews from Cat and Peter's trip to Japan, and Peter's address to the conference, are posted on Youtube - search for darwinlarrakin
See the Facebook page 'Nuclear Trail - Australia to Japan' : facebook.com/pages/Nuclear-trail-Australia-to-Japan/358198994197109