Antinuclear activist elected to Tokaimura assembly

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Note: What I find significant in this article is "The turnout rate 
was the lowest ever at 73.12%." This LOW turn-out exceeds even the 
highest voter turn-out rate in our democracy. Those who don't vote 
should have no say when it comes to complaining about the politicians 
who are elected, by the "minority"!

Antinuclear activist elected to Tokaimura assembly

MITO, Japan, Jan. 24 (Kyodo) - Voters in Tokaimura, Ibaraki 
Prefecture, scene of Japan's worst-ever nuclear accident, on Sunday 
for the first time elected an antinuclear activist to the village 
assembly. 

Kazumasa Aizawa, 58, an independent running on an antinuclear policy 
ticket, placed eighth in the voting, in which 23 candidates vied for 
the village assembly's 22 seats. The turnout rate was the lowest ever 
at 73.12%. 

The election of Aizawa in the village, where nuclear-related jobs are 
held by many residents, attests to a certain change of mood on the 
part of villagers since the nuclear accident last Sept. 30, political 
analysts said. 

The accident at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, exposed at 
least 150 people, including plant workers and local residents, to 
various levels of radiation. Hisashi Ouchi, 35, a worker at the JCO 
Co. plant where the accident happened, was severely irradiated and 
died of multiple organ failure Dec. 21. 

Aizawa, who declared his candidacy early this month, called during 
his campaign for the scrapping of a plan to build more nuclear-
related facilities. 

Some one-third of all jobs in Tokaimura -- at 13 plants and 
institutes -- are nuclear-related. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	
Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Division		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    
ICN Biomedicals, Inc.				E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          
Costa Mesa, CA 92626                                      

Personal Website:  http://www.geocities.com/scperle
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com

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