Tuesday, November 30, 1999
Japan port cities wary of U.S. nuclear warships
By Richard Roesler and Mayumi Yamamoto
Stripes Tokyo Bureau
TOKYO - After the recent nuclear accident in Tokaimura, local officials in Yokosuka and Sasebo are voicing concerns about the U.S. nuclear-powered warships that visit the two port cities.
Yokosuka city officials have asked the Navy for information about its nuclear-powered submarines. The city is trying to draw up a crisis-response plan for naval nuclear accidents, city official Nagatoshi Esashi said Monday.
"U.S. nuclear-powered submarines stay in Yokosuka (naval base) about 200 days out of the year," Esashi said. In April, he said, the city began work on the manual, which would cover U.S. nuclear sub accidents. The Navy has agreed to meet with city officials to help develop the manual, Esashi said.
"Our goal is to finish the manual by March, so we would like to meet in December," he said.
In Sasebo recently, officials from Sasebo, Yokosuka, Kure and Mizuru - all large port cities - met recently to draft a request to the Japanese government. They want the government to test for any radiation emitted from visiting American subs and nuclear-powered ships.
The Navy, for its part, says there's no reason for concern.
"The safety record of U.S. nuclear-powered warships is outstanding," said Jon Nylander, a Navy spokesman at Yokosuka naval base. "There has never been a nuclear accident in the 43-year history of the (Navy's nuclear) program." About 30 U.S. subs visit the base per year, he said.
Since the days of the first nuclear-powered subs, nuclear ships have logged thousands of port visits in more than 50 nations, the Navy said in a written response. The ships, according to the Navy, follow the same safety precautions in foreign ports that they would in an American port.
Still, Japan's nuclear worries increased after the Sept. 30 accident at the Tokaimura nuclear fuel-processing plant, which supplies fuel to Japanese reactors and labs.
Workers incorrectly put too much of the fuel in a stainless steel container, allowing the radioactive fuel to go critical and start a nuclear reaction. Some 69 people were exposed to high levels of radiation. Another 300,000 nearby residents huddled in their homes for two days.
Last month, both Sasebo and Yokosuka asked Japan's Science and Technology Agency, which oversees the nuclear industry, to extend its nuclear crisis law to cover U.S. submarine accidents.
"As mayors of the cities where nuclear powered submarines visit, we have to say the current plans are insufficient," the mayors wrote in their formal request. But the agency said it didn't intend to try to include U.S. forces in the new crisis legislation.
Japan - the only nation to suffer an atomic bombing - is extremely sensitive to foreign nuclear technology. But with scarce natural resources, it remains one of the most nuclear-dependent nations on earth, with 51 commercial reactors cranking out one-third of Japan's electricity.
Some activists are encouraged by Yokosuka's efforts to plan for a submarine accident.
"We really appreciate that Yokosuka city officials are working on the manual to deal with a nuclear leak. It should never happen, but unfortunately it could," said Yumi Murakami, member of a local peace group that has collected nearly 29,000 signatures opposing the stationing of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier at Yokosuka.
The three carriers that have been based at Yokosuka - the Midway, Independence and now the Kitty Hawk - have all been from the Navy's dwindling inventory of nonnuclear carriers.
"On the other hand," she said, "we fear that the day of deploying a nuclear-powered carrier to Yokosuka is getting closer. We worry that that's why the city is working on this manual now."
The last two nuclear-powered carrier visits to Yokosuka were the USS Nimitz, in September 1997, and the USS Carl Vinson, in June 1996.
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