Press release September 19, 2011 ______

Alliance declares its solidarity with today’s mass demonstration in Tokyo

Fukushima warning: protect the population from nuclear hazard An alliance of anti-nuclear initiatives supports protestors in Tokyo today in their call for an end to civil use of nuclear energy in . Six months after the nuclear disaster the Japanese government refuses to deliver the help still urgently needed by the people in the area of Fukushima. There is still no state program for the evacuation of the people living in areas more than 20 kilometers from the damaged reactor. Although so-called “Hot Spots” have been found in areas further away from Fukushima-Dai-ichi. These are spots where nuclear radiation is particularly high. Even at a distance of 60 kilometers from the damaged plants the independent Japanese organization Citizen’s Radioactivity Measuring Station measured more than 60 microsievert per hour on a children’s playground. Less than 0.1 microsievert per hour would be the usual amount. The scientific advisor of the Fukushima Prefecture professor Shunichi Yamashita claims that there were no health risks from exposure to a radiation dose of up to 100 millisievert per year. He was the main speaker on an international symposium of experts on radiation and health risks last week hosted by the Nippon Foundation, where not a single nuclear- skeptic scientist had been invited. Representatives of international NGOs – among them the IPPNW – have sent a letter of protest to the preparatory committee. Radioactivity leads to DNA damage especially in children and embryos. This can lead to miscarriages, malformations and cancer. This scientific evidence was drawn from the effects of the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and and the . However, until today it is still suppressed by a agreement of 1959 between the International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA and the World Health Organization WHO. The WHO has passed on the authority of definition of health damage by radioactivity to the IAEA. However, the agency’s statutory objective is the advancement of nuclear energy. Countless people have lost their lives or suffered from health damages due to the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. The WHO still keeps quiet about these facts and plays them down. On the same grounds people in Fukushima are now denied help. This disregard of victims of nuclear disasters is unbearable. Given the massive amount of radioactivity in Fukushima we call upon the international community to act so that the WHO can assume its statutory tasks also in the case of nuclear disasters, in an unrestricted, uncensored and independent way. This means unlimited information, best possible protection of the population and the best possible provision against nuclear dangers. This is to be implemented with no delay in the affected areas around Fukushima! Remark: A broad alliance of Anti-nuke initiatives protests in Tokyo today with the slogan “Goodbye Nuclear Power Plant”. Prominent supporter is Nobel laureate in literature Kenzaburo Oe. More information: http://sayonara-nukes.org/english/

Contact: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War/ Physicians for Social Responsibility, Körtestr. 10, DE- 10967 Berlin, www.ippnw.de, Angelika Wilmen, Tel. +49 30 – 69 80 74 15, Email: [email protected] .ausgestrahlt - gemeinsam gegen atomenergie, Jochen Stay Tel.: 0170-9358759, www.ausgestrahlt.de Bundesweites Bündnis: montags gegen Atomkraft und für Demokratie, Franz Botens, Email: [email protected], 0178-7312566

Supporters: Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), Landesverband Rheinland-Pfalz e.V. AKWEnde Bergstraße Südblockade 2011 Nachttanzblockade 2010 Stop New Nuclear, Großbritannien Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation, Japan Südwestdeutsche Anti-Atom-Initiative Umweltinstitut München e.V. Sortir du nucléaire Suisse romande