Crisis brings angst, no answers to Japan's Atomic Arcade | Reuters - 0 views
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Nearly four months after a tsunami-triggered crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant on the other side of Japan, Hayashi -- who grew up with reactors in her hometown and married a nuclear engineer -- has deep doubts, but no answers.
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"I never thought it was completely safe. Nothing made by man is perfect. But it supported us," Hayashi said, speaking quietly in a cafe in Tsuruga city, host to three of 14 reactors that dot the coast of the Fukui region -- nicknamed the "Atomic Arcade" because it has more reactors than any other region in Japan.
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"I think it would be good to abandon nuclear power, but what would we have to do to achieve that?" said the 59-year-old Hayashi
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Japan has no easy options to replace nuclear power, which before the crisis supplied about 30 percent of its electricity, one reason the government is rushing to persuade communities to restart halted reactors to meet summer demand.
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Promoting renewable sources will take years and burning more fossil fuel use is costly and contributes to global warming
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For towns and cities such as Tsuruga, where Japan's first commercial reactor came on line in 1970, the dilemma is a more personal one after decades during which the government promoted nuclear power as clean, cheap and safe while locating reactors in rural backwaters eager for economic windfalls.
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"They talked about the firm bedrock, but the reason they picked regions like this was because there are fewer people to die," said coffee shop operator Kazuya Ueyama, noting that power generated in Fukui supplied western Japanese urban centres.
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with local jobs heavily reliant on nuclear plants and town finances addicted to nuclear subsidies and tax revenues, not many in host towns are willing to speak out.
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A Tsuruga city assembly panel in late June adopted a statement urging the promotion of renewable energy but withdrew it within days after the resolution was characterised in media as anti-nuclear. "This is a town that cannot speak out," said assembly member Harumi Kondaiji.