A-bomb survivors protest Japan-India atomic pact

Atomic bomb survivors groups in Nagasaki have lodged a protest with the Japanese government after it started talks with India on an agreement to provide the country with Japanese nuclear power-generation technology.

India has been pushing forward with the construction of nuclear power plants in an attempt to deal with a chronic power shortage. But India is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The Japanese government had been cautious about concluding the agreement, which is indispensable if Japanese firms are to get orders for construction projects related to nuclear power generation. Japan changed its stance following the turnabout by the United States and France, who decided to start providing support for the supply of nuclear power technology to India.

On Monday, officials from Japan and India began negotiations to conclude the bilateral agreement.

Representatives of 5 groups of atomic bomb survivors from Nagasaki Prefecture held a news conference. An atom bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki in 1945. The representatives said the 5 groups have sent written protests to Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada protesting the negotiations. They stressed that there is no guarantee that the technology provided will not be used to develop nuclear weapons. They said it is unacceptable for Japan, the only country to have suffered an atomic bomb attack, to cooperate in nuclear development.

Koichi Kawano, the leader of the survivors' groups, says this bilateral cooperation could lead to a collapse of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty system, and the Japanese government should encourage India to become a signatory to the treaty.