Don’t Make Tokyo Bay into a Dead Sea To: Barack Obama, President of the United States of America To: Kan Naoto, Prime Minister of Japan From: Hikaku Shimin Sengen Undo Yokosuka (Yokosuka Citizens for Peace) From: Yokosuka Heiwa Sendan (Yokosuka Peace Squadron) Date: April 24, 2011 On April 20, 2011, the USS George Washington (GW) returned to Yokosuka Port. Taking this fact seriously, we would like to make our voices of protest be heard. The great earthquake and the tsunami triggered by the earthquake hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, driving it into a very grave situation. Damage such as the meltdown of fuel in the reactors and the destruction of reactor buildings by hydrogen explosions have led to the release of radioactivity and contamination into the environment. The situation has become a serious threat to people’s lives. Not only the affected people but people throughout Japan and the world have been watching Fukushima day after day with great concern. The government and the power utilities once emphasized that nuclear power was clean energy and argued that no serious accident such as this one would ever occur, repeatedly saying that it was ”safe.” In reality, however, an “unexpected” accident has occurred. With regard to the nuclear-driven aircraft carrier, the U.S. government has explained in “The Fact Sheet” that “U.S. nuclear-powered warships have safely operated for more than 50 years without experiencing any reactor accident, and that it is safe as reactors are protected by at least four barriers.” However, after experiencing what has been happening at the Fukushima Daiichi, we cannot believe in the safety of nuclear reactors just by words. Accidents do occur, and therefore we don’t want a dangerous nuclear aircraft carrier, and we cannot co-exist with a CVN. This is what we think. According to a research paper presented by the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center (CNIC), if a core meltdown accident were to occur onboard the CVN in Yokosuka, 1.2-1.6 million people could die from cancer in the Metropolitan region in ten years. The paper states that it might become difficult to get cooling water due to the tsunami’s outgoing tides. Similar phenomena may occur by ground uplift at the sea bed. The paper also points out, in discussing the loss of external power necessary for cooling the reactor, that power supply facilities could be damaged by an earthquake and that power would be impossible to generate without a fuel supply. Should a nuclear accident occur, Tokyo Bay would be contaminated with radioactivity, and its resource-rich waters could become a dead sea. Economic activities would suffer a big setback, and our existence itself would be threatened. We make the following demands toward both the Japanese and the U.S. governments: (1) Make all information on the nuclear aircraft carrier open to citizens; (2) Allow experts to board the carrier for inspection and guidance as is done by the Japanese government for Japan’s commercial reactors; (3) Immediately conduct Japan-U.S. joint drills against a nuclear disaster assuming the worst scenario; and (4) Immediately stop the maintenance of the carrier, which was done in violation of the agreement. Yokosuka Peace Squadron Ｂack