An exploration of why Fukushima Prefecture chose to host nuclear power and what its choices are after nuclear power

(Moved from http://greattohokurevival.blogspot.com/2011/06/fukushimas-choice-exploration-of-why.html , 2011-7-3)

Fifty years ago, villages along Fukushima Prefecture's coast decided to bid on Tokyo Electric Power Company's solicitation for sites to host its first nuclear power plant. Last Wednesday, almost a hundred days into its struggle to cope with one of histories biggest earthquakes, one of its biggest tsunamis, and its biggest nuclear energy accident, Fukushima's Recovery Commission decided to eliminate Fukushima's dependence on nuclear energy.





Siting of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant began in 1960 when Futaba, the town in which it was eventually sited, was "a backwater reeling from coal mining’s postwar decline" (Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times, 2011 April 2).



Daniel Aldrich notes (p 126) that when MITI and TEPCO announced their desire to construct a nuclear plant, officials of Fukushima's Okuma village volunteered eagerly. Aldrich mentions that the town already had one public bad, a military airfield that had been converted into a salt plant, but makes no mention of the region's mining history.



Fackler and Onishi describe a dependency created by lavish subsidies to the communities that host nuclear power plants. Without noting the poverty in small communities (see http://futaba-nuke-park.blogspot.com/2011/07/tohokus-nuclear-villages-small.html) that do not host plants, Fackler and Onishi deplore the easy money and higher-paying jobs that quickly replaced the communities' original economic basis.



Under the heading "Fukushima's Choice," this blog will explore the historical context of the first choice to host nuclear power and track Fukushima's progress in implementing its latest choice to eliminate nuclear power.



Sources:



Aldrich, Daniel P. Site Fights: Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan and the West, Cornell University Press, 2008



Fackler, Martin, and Onishi, Norimitsu, "Japan's Nuclear Dependency," New York Times, 2011/5/31, http://bit.ly/l9FAMh (accessed 2011/6/18)



Fukushima Prefecture, "In regard to the composition of Fukushima Prefecture's recovery vision (partial amendment in light of opinions at the 4th planning meeting," 2011/6/15, http://wwwcms.pref.fukushima.jp/download/1/sougoukeikaku_shiryou1-230615.pdf (accessed 2011/6/18)



Kahoku Online Network, "復興構想に「脱原発」　福島県検討委　姿勢明示へ," 2011/6/16, http://www.kahoku.co.jp/news/2011/06/20110616t61010.htm (accessed 2011/6/18)



Tabuchi, Hiroko "Japan's Nuclear Disaster Severs Town's Economic Lifeline, Setting Evacuees Adrift," New York Times, 2011/4/2, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/world/asia/03futaba.html (accessed 2011/6/18)