No Nukes Asia Forum 2012
Joint Declaration of No Nukes Asia Forum 2012
September 18-23, 2012 Korea
We are peoples from different Asian countries who have witnessed and experienced the risks and dangers of nuclear power. The danger had already been widely known after the disasters of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. And today's generation is living the continuing nuclear nightmare which is Fukushima. Still the nuclear industry has unabashedly maintained that nuclear power plants are safe, and that more need to be built. The Fukushima disaster epitomized the sheer absurdity of the industry's reassurances.
One year after the accident, the Fukushima nuclear power plants are still releasing a massive amount of radioactive material, and tens of thousands of people, especially children, have been displaced and are still in severe distress. While the government continues to downplay the impacts and conceal information, the risks of exposure to radiation increase by the day. The Japanese government has proposed plans to clean up the surrounding areas to bring back people and let them stay in the polluted areas for covering-up of the accident, but it is simply impossible to eliminate radioactive material.
We are appalled and indignant at those who still refuse to abandon nuclear power thereby ultimately abandoning people's safety and security. We condemn governments participating in the Nuclear Industry and Nuclear Security Summits for putting corporate interests and profits over people's interest and wellbeing. The Summits held in South Korea, in particular, is actually a venue for promoting nuclear power plant exports in disguise of an international forum on nuclear security. The nuclear industry is trying to make a breakthrough with nuclear power plant exports, since the repeated accidents made it almost impossible to build new plants domestically. We strongly condemn those who ignore the lessons of nuclear power.
We have witnessed various forms of discrimination and injustice that stem from nuclear power. Nuclear power plants and nuclear waste disposal site are posing a continuous threat to the survival and health of the indigenous people and other residents in the surrounding areas. The future generation is seriously burdened with the nuclear waste created not by themselves, but by the present generation. Many workers are at risk of exposure while cleaning up the nuclear power plants and the areas contaminated by radiation.
The only way to eliminate the injustice surrounding nuclear power and the danger of a nuclear disaster is to put a complete stop to nuclear power. There is no such thing as a safe nuclear power plant, or a non-discriminatory nuclear power plant.
Therefore, we send a strong warning message to the countries still obsessed with nuclear power. As long as nuclear power exists, there will be another Fukushima. If they do not want to repeat the tragedy, they must put an end to nuclear power at once. Reflecting on the lessons of Fukushima, we once again call on the governments around the world that they should not be tempted to use nuclear power ever.
We urge all people to reject the deadly nuclear energy and resist all moves to build nuclear power plants in our midst. We must all work together to start the era of nuclear phase outs and decisively make the shift to people-based, renewable, sustainable clean energy.
March 23, 2012
No Nukes Asia Forum 2012
