広島市は「景観を考慮した」と説明
オバマ米大統領が２７日に広島を訪問するのを受け、広島市が原爆資料館本館で行っている地下遺構の発掘調査を中断し、現場を土で埋め戻したことが１８日、分かった。周囲の囲いを撤去し、アスファルトを敷いて歩けるようにする。市は「景観を考慮した」と説明しているが、「原爆投下で街が廃虚になったことを示す遺構を、なぜわざわざ埋め戻すのか」と批判の声も上がっている。
原爆資料館の周辺は、原爆投下前は民家や理髪店、幼稚園などが建ち並び、市内有数の繁華街の一角だった。原爆で街は廃虚と化し、住民らは即死。戦後、平和記念公園として整備され、資料館から北側に原爆慰霊碑、原爆ドームを一直線に見通せるよう設計された。
市によると、本館の耐震補強工事が必要になり、昨年１１月、工事範囲の地下遺構を調査し記録するため発掘調査を始めた。本館の周りに囲いを設置し、北側出口は閉鎖していた。３月の終了予定だったが、想定以上に多くの被爆資料が発掘され、調査が長引いている。
これまでの調査で、三輪車や時計、万年筆などの遺品のほか、民家の敷石や道路の縁石など被爆前の街並みが分かるものが見つかっている。
市によると、オバマ大統領の広島訪問が今月１０日に発表され、翌１１日に埋め戻しを開始。発掘調査現場の西側の一部を除き、掘り返した土を戻してアスファルトを敷く作業をしている。囲いは西側部分だけを残して撤去する。未調査部分はオバマ大統領の訪問後に再び掘り返す。
埋め戻しの理由について市は「警備上の理由ではない。資料館の出口から慰霊碑、ドームまでを本来のように見通せるようにしたい」としている。
One of the world’s oldest nuclear plants helped build the Jewish state’s secret nuclear arsenal
ITS CUPOLA dully glinting in the sun, across kilometres of an exclusion zone in the Negev Desert, the nuclear reactor near the Israeli town of Dimona has for decades been the subject of intense speculation. Its bland official name, the Centre for Nuclear Research, belies a martial purpose. Foreign intelligence services, atomic scientists and a former Israeli employee claim that it is the source of fissile material used to make Israel’s nuclear weapons.
The country’s atomic secrets have always been closely guarded, so little is known about the plant at Dimona. However, officials at the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) admitted at a scientific conference last month that the reactor is showing its age. An ultrasound inspection of the aluminium core found 1,537 small defects and cracks, they said. The lifetime of such a reactor is usually around 40 years. At 53, Dimona is one of the world’s oldest operating nuclear plants.
The reactor, which was supplied by France, was switched on 15 years after the establishment of the state of Israel. The embattled country’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, insisted that Israel needed a nuclear deterrent. The programme was spearheaded by his assistant, Shimon Peres, and the main components were first activated in 1963. The government claimed that Dimona was a “textile plant”.
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Nuclear experts estimate that Israel has between 80 and 200 warheads, more than enough to deter would-be attackers. The dilemma facing Israel is whether to close the ageing reactor that helped build them. If it does, it would be unlikely to get the materials needed to build a new one, since it has never signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which came into force in 1970. Yet Uzi Even, a former member of the IAEC and Dimona scientist, argues that the reactor should be shuttered. (A smaller and older reactor supplied by America in 1960 for research purposes is scheduled to be deactivated in 2018 and replaced by a particle accelerator.)
Dimona’s defenders say it has both symbolic value (as a reminder that Israel will defend itself fiercely) and practical uses, too. It is a source of materials needed to maintain nuclear warheads, such as tritium (which decays with time but could theoretically be produced or procured by other means). It is also the centre of a “secret kingdom” employing hundreds of scientists whose capabilities the country’s leaders are loath to give up.
For nearly six decades, Israel’s policy of “nuclear opacity” has served it well. Its Arab neighbours are convinced it is a nuclear power, but Israel clings to the ambiguous formulation that it “will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the region”, neither acknowledging nor denying its capabilities. With powerful neighbours still openly advocating its destruction, the Jewish state will keep its doomsday weapons. But its ageing and potentially dangerous reactor? Perhaps not.
