ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an assessment by an American observer of an attempt to establish a nuclear power plant at Onagawa, a small town north of the city of Sendai on the main island of Honshu, Japan. It looks at what happened at Onagawa. The chapter examines some of the factors that influenced the participants to make the type of decisions they made. But opponents whose major concern was more for nuclear safety, their future as coastal fishermen, or the effect of a nuclear plant on the lifestyle of their small city were profoundly affected by such arguments. The Environmental Protection Agency has developed special plans for certain heavily polluted coastal areas, such as the Seto Inland Sea. Decisions relating to the siting of a nuclear power plant in the coastal zone are typical examples of cruel, and in some respects, “tragic choices.”.
