Kaminoseki) Nuclear Power Plant, Environmental Impact Assessment and Conservation
2010/04/12
Yuji ANKEI and Hiroshi FUKUDA, 2003
Nuclear Power Plant, Assessment and Conservation:
Towards a Wise Use of the Suo-nada Sea
around Nagashima Island, Seto Inland Sea in Japan
Global Environmental Research 7(1):91-101
Abstract
The Chugoku Electric Power Company (CEPC) has plans for constructing a nucl
ear power plant (two reactors, 137.3 megawatts each) on Nagashima Island of
Kaminoseki Town situated in the Suo-nada Sea, the Western-most portion of th
e Seto Inland Sea National Park, Japan. The Seto Inland Sea, the biggest hal
f-closed water in Japan, has suffered from deterioration of its natur
al environment since the 1970s caused by landfilling, dredging, and industri
al sewage from the development of industrial complexes. In the 1980s, the po
llution here became one of the most serious social and environmental problem
s of Japan. It has been revealed recently that the biodiversity of the Suo-n
ada Sea is exceptionally well conserved in spite of such pollution. Nagashim
a Island is on the east end of this Suo-nada Sea, and thanks to the warm Kur
oshio current washing its untouched coastlines, which are immune from artifi
cial banks, it has by far the best conserved shallow water maritime biodiver
sity in today’s Japan. The Japanese government launched the Environme
ntal I
mpact Assessment Law in June 1999, and the proposed Kaminoseki Power Plant b
ecame the first case of a nuclear power plant in Japan to which this new law
was to be applied. The Committee for Technological Evaluation of Environmen
tal Assessment of Yamaguchi Prefecture judged the Preparatory Report made by
CEPC (April 1999) as unsatisfactory, and the Ecological Society of Japan (E
SJ) expressed their academic concern about the conservation of biodiversity
around Nagashima (March 2000), and it demanded a re-assessment (March 2001).
Although the project was accepted as a national one by the Japanese governm
ent in July 2001, it is still at a stand-still owing to many obstacles and o
pinions against the project: not all the landowners agreed to sell their lan
d, a fishing cooperative at nearby Iwaishima Island has refused to accept an
y compensation for the possible loss of their fishing rights, and so on. The
authors illustrate some of the recent discoveries from their research, and
propose an alternative project of an eco-museum for a more sustainable use o
f the island eco and the surrounding sea. Nagashima Island will becom
e a focus of ecotour and environmental education that will ensure a wise and
more sustainable use of the Seto Inland Sea than constructing nuclear power
plants in the midst of this sanctuary worthy of its nomination as a World H
eritage Site.
Key words: assessment, biodiversity, community-based conservation,
development, ecotourism, nuclear power plant