Osaka (CNN) — In Hiroshima, recent images of razed villages and burning shells of buildings in Japan’s quake-damaged northeast are recalling painful memories of a time sixty-five years ago when an atomic bomb created similar effects in their town.
But it is the less visual aspect of this disaster the threat of nuclear fallout that has activists in Hiroshima sounding the call for a change in Japan’s approach to its supply of electricity.
“It’s like the third atomic bomb attack on Japan,” said Keijiro Matsushima, an 82-year-old survivor of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima. “But this time, we made it ourselves.”
Japan has 54 nuclear power plants nationwide, and about one-third of its electricity comes from nuclear energy. When many of these plants were built, they were designed to be in operation for thirty years, but as Japanese power companies face increasing public resistance to the construction of new plants, these plants will be operating for forty to fifty years, says Akira Tashiro.
Continue reading at Nuclear crisis recalls painful memories in Hiroshima.
