Koodankulam senior citizens' letter to Japanese PM

December 28, 2011

The Senior Citizens of Koodankulam Area

Koodankulam
Tirunelveli District
Tamil Nadu
Email: koodankulam@yahoo.com

Mr. Yoshihiko Noda
The Honorable Prime Minister of Japan
Tokyo
Japan

Your Excellency:

Greetings! We, the senior citizens of the Koodankulam area in
Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, India, would like to appeal to you
not to revive the civil nuclear cooperation negotiations with our
country.

We have witnessed how your country has suffered from both nuclear
weapons and nuclear power. This "Hiroshima to Fukushima" devastation
has taken a heavy toll on your country although you are
scientifically more capable, technologically superior, and financially
better-off than most countries in the world. Our country, India, is
not in a position to face a Hiroshima or to
suffer a Fukushima.

As the one and only country in the world that has suffered radiation
from nuclear bombs and nuclear power plants, Japan must take a lead in
saving humanity from the
nuclear menace and not try to make money out of the deadly nuclear
business. Your government has just found out that it will take
some 40 years and $14.6 billion to decommission the Fukushima nuclear
power plants. Our country that is fighting the poverty and misery of
hundreds of millions of people cannot just afford this criminal waste
of time, energies and resources.

We have great regards for your country and we respect your people who
are very duty-conscious, hard working and sincere. We learn that about
800 Japanese companies are operating in India; the Japanese
foreign direct investments have reached the $3.62 billion mark in
2010-2011; and the
India-Japan bilateral trade has had an increase of 24 per cent thanks
to the Comprehensive
Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with your country.

While we value our country's socioeconomic-political relations with your
country, we definitely do not appreciate any civil nuclear cooperation
with Japan or anyone else for that matter. While you yourself are
struggling to contain the damages of the Fukushima disaster, you have
no moral legitimacy to sell this dangerous technology to other
countries.
Hence we request you not to revive the civil nuclear cooperation
negotiations with India.

With best regards and all peaceful wishes,

Cordially,

The Senior Citizens of Koodankulam Area