Bishops: No Such Thing As Safe Nuclear Power

There is no safe nuclear power despite a government’s assurance of safe nuclear energy, a visiting Japanese nuclear expert said in a lecture at the Catholic Center in Tokyo yesterday. Tetsuji Imanaka, assistant professor at the Research Reactor Institute of Kyoto University in Japan, spoke before some 100 priests, nuns and lay people including Bishop Matthias Ri Iong-hoon, president of the Korean Bishops’ Committee for Justice and Peace. Imanaka said the Japanese government has stressed “nuclear power plants are safe whatever may happen.” Yet “the authorities had already known that nuclear plant disaster would cause large amounts of damage” but they did not tell the truth, he said. Bishop Ri asked the participants to protest against the government’s stubborn attitude to push ahead the nuclear plan while covering up the danger of nuclear power. South Korea has 21 nuclear reactors and is building or planning 11 more, according to the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power. In March, Bishops in Philippines called for an end to nuclear power. Last month, Japanese Bishops urged their government to stop building nuclear power stations.