Japan: 30 Thousand Protest PM’s Plan To Restart Nuclear Reactors

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Over 30,000 people attended a rally in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park on Friday to protest a plan to restart a number of nuclear power plants.

Along with Japanese utility companies, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is campaigning to restart several of the dormant plants which have been offline since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.

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The anti-nuclear protestors say that restarting the nuclear reactors will create safety risks.

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RT reports:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been advocating the reboot of the country’s nuclear power plants, saying it is crucial for Japan’s energy policy.

“Our resource-poor country cannot do without nuclear power to secure the stability of energy supply while considering what makes economic sense and the issue of climate change,” Abe told a press conference on March 11.

He pointed out that only those plants meeting all new safety standards would resume operation, stressing that safety is the government’s “top priority.” According to the prime minister, the return to nuclear power will cut Japan’s reliance on costly fossil fuels that are currently being used to maintain the country’s energy supply.

Despite official assurances, anti-nuclear sentiment runs high among the Japanese, who cite safety concerns.

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Many of Japan’s nuclear plants were decommissioned after the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit the northeast coast of Japan in 2011, resulting in the meltdown of nuclear reactors at the Fukushima power plant and the release of massive amounts of radioactivity, in the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.