The disaster at the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which was caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, has drastically changed our lives.
Radioactive materials scattered over a wide area contaminated the environment, and many people lost their homes and livelihoods. All the myths about nuclear power plants, such as “absolutely safe,” “low cost,” “clean and environmentally friendly,” “stable,” and “without nuclear power, we will not have enough electricity,” have been destroyed.
Since the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, East Japan has been without nuclear power for more than 10 years (as of February 2022), and in fiscal 2020, nuclear power will account for about only 4% of the power supply in Japan. Even once restarted, some nuclear power plants have been shut down again due to delays in safety measures and lawsuits to stop their operation. Even a candidate site for the final disposal of the extremely dangerous “nuclear waste” has not been decided. Internationally, the cost of generating electricity from nuclear power plants is much higher than that of renewable energy sources, and is expected to continue to rise as the cost of safety measures increases.
FoE Japan is continuing its activities for the realization of nuclear power phase-out as soon as possible, as well as for full compensation and support for the reconstruction of the lives of the victims of the nuclear accident.