Terminating nuclear energy now because of the Fukushima nuclear disaster would inflict unbearable suffering on future generations in Japan, an executive of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said.
Terminating nuclear energy now because of the Fukushima nuclear disaster would inflict unbearable suffering on future generations in Japan, an executive of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said.
“The world trend is to advance nuclear power generation,” Hiroyuki Hosoda, the LDP’s executive acting secretary-general, said on a TV program on July 22. “The argument that we should abandon everything because of the misfortune--the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.--will cause future Japanese nationals intolerable pain.”
Hosoda was elected from Shimane Prefecture, which is home to a nuclear power plant.
Although he was apparently trying to express the feelings of residents in Shimane Prefecture, his remark may spark criticism that he is being insensitive to the disaster victims in Fukushima Prefecture.
The LDP’s policy chief, Sanae Takaichi, came under heavy fire last month for saying the Fukushima nuclear accident has not directly caused any deaths in her arguments for restarting nuclear reactors.
More than two years since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck northeastern Japan and led to meltdowns at the Fukushima plant, about 150,000 residents of the prefecture are still living as evacuees.