Japan Railway Workers Doro-Chiba: Fight back against forced exposure to radiation! Refuse work while exposed to radiation! Stop “reuse” of contaminated soil

Japan Railway Workers Doro-Chiba: Fight back against forced exposure to radiation! Refuse work while exposed to radiation! Stop “reuse” of contaminated soil
www.doro-chiba.org

International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba (National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba)

Fight back against forced exposure to radiation!
Refuse work while exposed to radiation!
Stop “reuse” of contaminated soil!

June 2016
International Labor Solidarity Committee of Doro-Chiba

In September 2013, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shamelessly lied to win the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo, claiming that the contaminated water leaking from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant was “under control” and there had been “no health problems,” nor would there be.

Now all the lies and cover-ups have been exposed. Over 1,000 contaminated water storage tanks already occupy almost all of the space
at the nuclear plant site. The
$300 million “ice wall” project,

once hyped as the most reliable
solution for substantial reduc-
tion of contaminated water by
preventing groundwater infil-
tration into the wrecked reactor
buildings, has become a fiasco.
Far from being a “wall,” it is
now derided as a “lace
curtain.” As many as 173 child
thyroid cancer or suspected
cancer cases have appeared in
the last five years. The
incidence rate in Fukushima ranges to around 50 times that of the general population.

The Abe government is forcing evacuees to move back to villages, towns and cities in Fukushima Prefecture that remain heavily contaminated. It is doing this by terminating all compensation payments available for evacuees by 2018. This amounts to economic coercion. The Japanese government has achieved a change to radiation exposure standards from 1mSv/y to 20mSv/y. According to the Japanese government’s post-disaster decontamination target, 20mSv/y is now acceptable. This is 20 times the maximum allowed dose for the general public! Moreover, on July 12th, the Abe government will lift an evacuation order for the bulk of Minamisoma City (designated a “zone in preparation for the lifting of the evacuation order”), which has been in place since the 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. In accordance with Abe’s plan, on the same day JR East Japan will resume rail services between

Wastewater storage tanks at Fukushima Daiichi NPP

Haranomachi Sta- tion and Odaka Sta- tion, which is about 16km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, on the JR Joban Line.

Japan’s Ministry of the Environment has raised the level of recyclable conta- minated waste to 8,000Bq/kg, 80 times more than the current norm. It also plans to recycle the waste for use in public works, espe- cially construction for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Even more incredi- bly, Tokyo Metro- politan Government is planning to build a cross-country course, rowing and canoe-kayak water-

way and mountain bike course on a landfill called Central Breakwater Disposal Site, which is the most dangerous hot spot. The site has been a constant dumping ground for highly radioactive waste (8,000Bq/kg to 100,000Bq/kg), such as incinerator bottom ash, incinerated sewage sludge ash and clean water sediment.

The previous governor of Tokyo, Naoki Inose, cooperated with Prime Minister Abe and helped bring the 2020 Olympics to Tokyo, but was then forced to resign over a loan scandal. Inose’s successor, Yoichi Masuzoe, easily won the position with the full support of Abe, but has also now resigned due to yet another financial scandal. The Olympics are intrinsically linked to the interests of only a handful of large capitals and their governments. In order to secure their own survival, they put money first, rather than valuing the lives of ordinary people.

On June 24th, the Abe
administration and
Shikoku Electric Power
Co. trampled on the
protesting municipal
workers and local
residents, and started
loading MOX fuel into
the No. 3 reactor at
Ikata Nuclear Power
Plant in Ehime Pre-
fecture. Since April
14th and the Kuma-
moto Earthquake, tre-
mors have continued to
affect wide parts of Kyushu. This indicates that the Median Tectonic Line, the largest belt of faults running from central Honshu to Kyushu, has now finally started to move. In spite of a disaster as large as the Kumamoto Earthquake, the Abe administration and Kyushu Electric Power Co. still refuse to shut down Sendai Nuclear Power Plant, the only nuclear power plant operating in the country. And furthermore, they insist on reopening Ikata Nuclear Power Plant in July, which is located on the Median Tectonic Line.

“We care only about today, regardless of what may happen tomorrow.” This is the reality of Japanese imperialism and the Abe administration, which is desperate to survive in the worldwide economic depression.

Crush the Abe administration that is rushing to reopen Japan’s nuclear power plants!
Follow the example of Doro-Mito and refuse to work in conditions exposed to radiation!
Stop radiation-contaminated soil from being used for constructing Olympics-related facilities!

News & Documents

Nuclear refugees tell of distrust, pressure to return to Fukushima

by Yuri Kageyama

AP
The Japan Times, March 11, 2016

They feel like refugees, although they live in one of the world’s richest and most peaceful nations.

Five years ago, these people fled their homes, grabbing what they could, as a nearby nuclear plant melted down after being hit by tsunami, spewing radiation. All told, the disaster in Fukushima displaced 150,000 by the government’s count.

About 100,000 are still scattered around the nation, some in barrack-like temporary housing units and others in government-allocated apartment buildings hundreds of kilometers away.

Although authorities have started to open up areas near the damaged reactors that were previously off limits, only a fraction of residents have

returned. For example, in the town of Naraha, where evacuation orders were lifted in September, 459 people, or 6 percent of the pre-disaster population, have gone back.

Read more

Constitution does not specifically ban Japan’s use of nuclear weapons: Cabinet official

The Japan Times

March 19, 2016

Japan’s Constitution does not necessarily ban the use of nuclear weapons, Yusuke Yokobatake, director-general of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, said Friday.

“We don’t think that the use of all kinds of nuclear weapons is prohibited under the Constitution,” the head of the constitutional watchdog told the House of

Councilors’ Budget Committee in response to a question from Shinkun Haku of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan. Read more

Abe Cabinet says Article 9 does not ban possessing, using N-weapons

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
April 2, 2016
The Abe Cabinet has decided that war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution does not necessarily ban

Japan from possessing and using nuclear weapons.

Read more.

Japanese Protest Ahead of Obama’s Visit to Hiroshima

By Morichika Nakamoto
Telesur
March 6, 2013
Hundreds of Japanese protested on Thursday ahead of the visit of U.S.

See also:

president Barack Obama to Hiroshima, after his remarks that the trip would

not include an official apology from his government. Read more

Doro-Chiba’s Statement opposing Obama’s visit to Hironima

You can find the archive of Doro-Chiba Quake Report here: http://dorochibanewsletter.wordpress.com/

71th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

August 6

Stop nuclear war in Korean Peninsula with the power of international workers’ solidarity!

Unite angry voices in Hiroshima, Okinawa and Fukushima! Abolish all nuclear weapons, all military bases and all nuclear power plants!

Overthrow Abe government that promotes constitutional revision, war and nuclear armament!

Morning rally: qq Time: 8:30 a.m.
Place: Atomic Dome

Main rally:
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Place: Small Arena of Prefectural Gymnasium

March:
Time: 3:00 p.m.

Contact: hiro-100@cronos.ocn.ne.jp http://86hiroshima.blogspot.jp/