It was reported on Thursday that there are over 15,000 dead and missing people, and that the nuclear threat is increasingly serious after the explosions of reactors of Fukushima I, in Hitachi municipality, Ibaraki.

According to a press release issued on Wednesday by Friends of the Earth International, Friends of the Earth Japan’s project coordinator, Junichi Mishiba, said: “We are grateful for the many messages from all over the world that we have received in support of those suffering from this natural and human-made disaster”

The Japanese activist added: “We are seriously concerned about people’s lives and about the worrying situation of the nuclear reactors, and we urge the Japanese authorities and the Tokyo Electric Power Company to do everything possible to prevent the immeasurable damage to people, the environment and the local ecosystem that radioactive leaks or a melt-down would cause.”

Meanwhile, the Chair of Friends of the Earth International, Nnimmo Bassey, from Nigeria, said: "While these are natural disasters, the additional nuclear disaster is human made and clearly shows the urgent need for Japan and other countries to halt plans for new nuclear plants, to decommission existing ones and to invest in safe, renewable energy forms." "We cannot sacrifice more lives on the altar of the nuclear power industry lobby", he highlighted.

One of the organizations member of the environmentalist federation, REDES-Friends of the Earth Uruguay, expressed on Wednesday through a press release “its condolences to the Japanese people in these sad times.” And they took the opportunity to reject nuclear power, in a context of pressure in Uruguay to establish a nuclear power plant in the country. There is a law that bans nuclear power generation in the country, but this law could be repealed.

REDES – FoE Uruguay states that nuclear power is not safe, clean, cheap, nor necessary, and it welcomed the decision by Switzerland to freeze their nuclear program, and Germany’s decision to shut down seven of their 17 nuclear plants.
“We support the path towards renewable energy sources that this government has been developing. The country aims to have by 2015 50 per cent of its energy matrix based on these sources. Today we should say “Nuclear Power? No, Thanks” louder than ever”, reads the statement issued by Redes –FoE Uruguay.

Meanwhile, around thirty organizations and social networks from different parts of the world issued a declaration called “NO more Chernobyl, NO Fukushima: NO TO NUCLEAR ENERGY WORLDWIDE!”. The organizations express their “deepest condolences to the Japanese people” and “solidarity for the humanitarian emergency caused by this disaster.”

The Solon Foundation from Bolivia, Ecologistas en Acción from Spain, the Blue Planet Project from Canada, the Third World Network, Acción Ecológica from Ecuador, Focus on the Global South, based in Thailand, and Friends of the Earth International’s organizations around the world, are among the organizations that signed the declaration.

In terms of the nuclear crisis, the organizations regret the fact that large transnational corporations, developed countries and institutions such as the World Bank promote nuclear energy as a solution to climate change. They add that despite referring to nuclear power as a clean alternative at the international climate negotiations, “nuclear power generation has repeatedly proven capable of escaping both technical and human control and affecting millions of people”.

The social organizations demand governments to listen to the voices of the civil society that opposes nuclear power generation, among other false solutions to climate change. They also demand the dismantling of all nuclear plants. “We call on governments to focus on ensuring the survival of millions of people around the world and their right to shelter, health, and food sovereignty, instead of weakening conditions on the planet by following the dictates of capital. ”

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/