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No Nukes and No MOX Fuel. 11 Year Old Starts Petition Against Pluthermal Power.
Nov 30th, 2009
Part of the ‘children’s petition to stop pluthermal use’ stating the dangers of using the extremely toxic plutonium rich MOX fuel, and asking for a future where children and other living beings can live in peace.
We caught wind of a child in Ehime conducting a petition against the local nuclear power station switching to plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, known locally as ‘pluthermal’. The image above shows part of a handwritten petition penned by the eleven-year-old child. It is addressed to the chairperson of the Ehime Prefectural Assembly.
Petition: Stop pluthermal use of the Ikata reactor
begins the petition, and continues to state, in their own handwriting, why they are opposed to the reactor switching to MOX.
The Ikata nuclear reactor is run by Shikoku Electric Power Co. in Ikata Town, Nishiuwa District, Ehime Prefecture. A local eleven-year-old child took a stand against plans to burn the plutonium rich MOX fuel in the nuclear power station, and started a petition for children only.
The plan to use MOX at the Ikata nuclear reactor began in 2004, and got approval from Ehime prefecture and Ikata town in October, 2006. Preparation is going ahead for operation to begin in fiscal 2010. News of MOX fuel arriving in May this year spurred a local 5th grade elementary student to research the effects of MOX fuel, and initiate a petition to stop it. The ‘children’s petition to stop pluthermal use’ began on June 23, the child’s 11th birthday, and amassed 285 signatures in just 5 days, before being submitted to the Aichi Prefectural Assembly on June 30.
The petition will continue to run, collecting signatures to hand to the assembly at the next meeting in September.
Ikata power station, at the base of Sada peninsular, Ehime. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by amake
MOX is touted as the ‘recycling of uranium’, extracting usable uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, and re-using it as a mixed oxide fuel, with higher plutonium content. The Shikoku Electric Power Co. homepage claims MOX is:
an effective method of ‘using uranium resources efficiently’ and ‘maintaining a stable supply of energy
However, in addition to the existing dangers of the current nuclear power station, people living nearby are concerned about the increased toxicity of plutonium that is more abundant in MOX fuel. Plans to use MOX at the Genkai nuclear power plant run by Kyushu Electric Power Co., and the Takahama nuclear power plant run by Kansai Electric Power Co. are also facing controversy surrounding safety and necessity. The youth had this to say about starting the petition:
Humans are the only ones that mess with the earth, and the environment, right? Then I think it’s right that we take responsibility for other living things as well.
The fear of highly toxic MOX fuel, and the philosophy that we humans mustn’t run amok are both legitimate. No matter the reasons for using MOX, the innocent pleas of these children cannot be ignored.
This article is translated from the original Japanese post
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