Fukushima catastrophe commemorated

Photo: Courtney Hanson

Japanese author and anti-nuclear power activist Shoji Kihara was the featured speaker at “A Day of Remembrance and Warning” on the anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe that followed an earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011. From the grounds of Fairfield Missionary Baptist Church where the event was held, the steam cloud rising from the cooling towers of Georgia Power’s twin nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle can be clearly seen. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently gave a green light for construction to begin on two more reactors, the first such permission since the Three Mile Island meltdown on March 28, 1979. Organized by the anti-nuclear-power group WAND, the event brought out residents of Burke County, one of the poorest counties in Georgia and the site of the plant, as well as concerned people from Atlanta, North and South Carolina, and elsewhere.

— Dianne Mathiowetz