60,000 protest Japan's plan to restart nuclear power plants

[bananas]

Source: United Press International

Approximately 60,000 people rallied Sunday near the Diet building in Tokyo to protest Japan's plan to restart nuclear power plants, rally organizers said.

The Metropolitan Police Department put the number of protesters at closer to 20,000 to 30,000, Kyodo News reported.

The rally began in Shiba Park, which was attended by Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe, RIA Novosti reported. The protesters then marched on the Diet building.

Participants have gathered more than 8 million signatures against the government's plan to restart nuclear power plants after the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant due to a massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake, RIA Novosti reported.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.upiasia.com/Top-News/2013/06/02/60000-protest-Japans-plan-to-restart-nuclear-power-plants/UPI-34961370197818/

[proverbialwisdom]

1. Contrast Japan's policy with that of Germany.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/nuclear-power-germany-renewable-energy

Goodbye nuclear power: Germany's renewable energy revolution
The country has vowed to unplug itself from nuclear power and embrace renewables. The world should be paying attention

Tim Smedley
Guardian Professional, Friday 10 May 2013 12.58 EDT

Jump to comments (47)

Nuclear power produces nearly 20% of Germany's energy, but in July 2011 (only three months after Fukushima) the German government vowed to shut down its nuclear capability within 10 years. Not just that, but to replace it with renewable energy, cut greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, ensure renewables contribute 80% of Germany's energy by 2050, and ensure energy consumption drops 20% by 2020 and 50% by 2050. It even has its own word: 'Energiewende', or 'Energy Transformation'. And Angela Merkel, not known for hyperbole, has described it as a 'Herculean task'.

Energiewende: persuading the public

But Professor Dr Manfred Fischedick is not a casual observer. As vice president of the Wuppertal Institute, he is scientific adviser to both policy makers and industry. Energiewende, he says, didn't simply fall from the sky in 2011. "Discussions about Energiewende had started already in the 1980s", says Fischedick. "There is a long tradition here in talking about alternative energy transformation. We had a lot of good scientific background and a very good basis for the government to come to such decisions in a very short timeframe... Just three months' discussion for such an ambitious energy concept would not have been possible without that."

<>

Additionally, Germany has banned GMOs in food and recommends exceedingly few childhood vaccinations, or so I have recently read.