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December 2, 2015

Business lobby chief: Fukushima nuclear accident an 'extremely localized event'

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201512020049

By GO KOBAYASHI/ Staff Writer

The crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is a “localized event,” according to the chairman of Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives), one of the nation’s top business organizations.

Chairman Yoshimitsu Kobayashi made the remarks at a regular news conference in Tokyo on Dec. 1 when he was punctuating the dangers of global warming.

“The nuclear plant (accident) was an extremely localized event if seen on a terrestrial globe,” said Kobayashi, who is also chairman of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp. “While the accident is as regrettable as anything, it is like fulminant hepatitis in a sense that only a localized area is affected instantaneously.”

Kobayashi also likened carbon dioxide, which is considered the primary greenhouse gas causing global warming, to “chronic diabetes.”

“If the global temperature rises by 5 degree by 2100, the sea level will rise by 80 centimeters or so, and island countries in the southern oceans will not survive as nations,” he said. “CO2 is that dangerous disease.”

Workers are still battling to keep the situation under control at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, which suffered a triple meltdown after it was hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. About 100,000 Fukushima residents are still living as evacuees.

After the news conference, Kobayashi defended his remarks, saying he meant to send a warning that “global warming could pose dangers as serious as the nuclear accident.”

Keizai Doyukai earlier this year urged the central government to maintain at least a 20-percent dependence on nuclear energy in 2030.