2011: Our Founding Statement (CNFE)
Christian Network for a Nuke-free Earth CNFE 原発体制を問うキリスト者ネットワーク
seit 30.06.2011
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Our Founding Statement
Our Founding Statement
December 25th, 2011 Christian Network for a Nuke-Free Earth (CNFE)
Preface
Nine months have passed since the severe accident of March 11th, 2011 at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Station of Tokyo Electric Power Company. We have yet to see any real sign of the reactors’ calamity being resolved, as the company continues to contaminate on a global scale. Human history took a drastic turn on March 11th, and we, the members of CNFE, must consider our responsibility for allowing the “nuclear society” that built numerous reactors up to this very day. In a spirit of repentance, we, CNFE, present our Founding Statement.
The darkness we call “nuclear society”
Nuclear power generation comes from the enormous energy of nuclear fission. This nuclear technology is diametrically opposed to the dignity of life. It is a destructive force that far surpasses the range of human intelligence.
Beginning with the “Atoms for Peace” campaigns during the Cold War era, the world’s powers and nuclear industry, which worked to create the nuclear system, managed to produce gigantic profits from all the stages of the nuclear fuel cycle, from digging for uranium ores to power generation to reprocessing of spent fuel and even production of nuclear weapons. Obviously, this reckless, vicious “cycle” has cost numerous lives and sacrifices in terms of the environment and of humanity. These “merchants of radiated death (the participants in the system),” however, are still attempting to carry on and expand their vicious “cycle” even now.
The Japanese government is no exception. It made up a national policy that claims “peaceful use of nuclear energy is indispensable to secure energy supply for the nation” and propagated many nuclear myths that had no basis, such as: “nuclear plants help to promote local development,” “nuclear fuels are recyclable,” “nuclear energy provides cheap power,” “nuclear plants mean clean energy without CO2 emissions,” “Japan’s nuclear technologies are superb,” or “nuclear plants are safe.” Political, bureaucratic, business and academic circles together with the mass media have acted in concert to set up nuclear plant after nuclear plant in the islands of Japan, which is one of the areas most frequently hit by earthquakes in the whole world.
So the Fukushima No. 1 meltdown, which began on March 11th, 2011, has demonstrated to the world how vulnerable nuclear plants are to earthquakes and made clear in an instant all the issues inherent to the “nuclear society.”
The amount of radioactive materials (fallout) spewed forth by the Fukushima reactors so far is estimated to be much in the same league as that produced by the Chernobyl disaster, which contaminated the whole face of the planet. Indeed, the melted down reactors and used nuclear fuels at Fukushima are still spewing radioactive substances into the environment. In those areas with the heaviest radioactive fallout, more than a million residents are being forced to live in a high-risk environment. Such radioactive particles are a peril that we humans have no means to detoxify or safely process. Moreover, they will be a deadly threat to lives on the earth for millions of years to come.
Even in normal operation, a single 1 million KW-class nuclear reactor generates fission byproducts (radioactive wastes) each day, equivalent to four Hiroshima atomic events. Japan has 54 reactors, which have so far produced nuclear waste equivalent to 1.2 million Hiroshima bombings. And the quantity is still rising. Furthermore, Japan is known to have the most expensive electric power in the world, and its nuclear policies are financed, at least to some extent, by the people’s taxes. Moreover, such policies were carried out at a high price – at the sacrifices of those laboring at the reactors, who were exposed to intense levels of radiation at work and then thrown aside, and of the residents of local communities who hosted nuclear plants. Too often, farmers and fishers in these communities lost their means of living, and their communities fell apart.
Yet in spite of all these tragedies, and while the Fukushima meltdown has yet to be resolved, the Japanese government and nuclear industry still intend to continue exporting reactors to other nations and to bury Japan’s nuclear wastes in some other country. They are still making false claims such as saying that “the radiation levels from Fukushima are safe,” “we can resolve this situation,” “Japan’s nuclear technologies still remain superb.”
How we aim at liberation from the darkness of “nuclear society”
1. Our posture as Christians
It is true that we Christians are a minority in Japanese society. Still, we will resist the darkness of the nuclear system, and we intend to live out all possible forms of solidarity that can bring about the liberation of all life from the nuclear system, along with Jesus who came alongside all the lives that were oppressed and brought about a gospel of liberation.
2. The abolishment of nuclear power
We demand an immediate suspension of operations and the following abolishment of all nuclear plants in Japan, and call for the cessation of operations of facilities used in the nuclear fuel cycle, such as the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant (located in Rokkasho-mura, Aomori Prefecture), the Monju Fast-breeder Reactor (in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture), and for Japan’s immediate withdrawal from all nuclear fuel cycle plans.
We would also support development and promotion of sustainable, natural forms of energy.
3. Cooperation with other nations
We demand the immediate abolishment of Japanese exports of nuclear plants, as well as plans for the overseas processing and/or disposal of our used nuclear fuels and radioactive wastes. To this end, we will work in cooperation with anti-nuclear movements in neighboring countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Mongolia, China, India, the Philippines, and Indonesia, as we work to widen the scope of this movement even further.
4. Cooperation with other anti-nuke groups within Japan
We, CNFE, formed our network in the aftermath of March 11th, 2011. We are newcomers, and would seek to learn from those many people and groups who have been at work for many years to abolish nuclear plants within Japan and oppose the nation’s export of nuclear plants and technologies. We are now in a crucial stage of human history, where we have to put an end to the age of nuclear energy. Thus, we are determined to give this cause all we can, working together with all those others who share our aims.
NOTE: CNFE will be comprised entirely of individual members, with no regard to nationality, denomination, or organization one may belong to, or to the leadership of such groups..
NOTE: We are willing to consider further modifications to this “Founding Statement,” based on your comments.