By Kim Tae-jong
Greenpeace urged Korea to stop constructing nuclear power plants Tuesday and develop alternative and renewable resources to avoid the nuclear accident that hit Japan, citing findings from its radiation monitoring there.
“As we can see in the case of Japan, accidents still and will happen. And the impact is huge,” Greenpeace East Asia Executive Director Mario Damato said during a news conference on the organization’s flagship Rainbow Warrior. “We’re not telling Korea to go to the Stone Age or something, but to shift to alternative energy instead of nuclear energy.”
The country has some of the oldest nuclear power plants in Asia and is on its way to build more, which could be seen as gambling with its future, he said.
The news conference was the first official event hosted here by the international environmental group ahead of the launch of its Seoul office.
Greenpeace monitored radiation on both sea and land for about two months near the earthquake-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. They discovered the radiation levels of sampled marine life, vegetables and soil were much higher than official limits, raising serious concerns about continued long-term risk to people and the environment from contamination.
“Fukushima’s nuclear meltdown destroyed lives and communities,” said Stan Vincent, Greenpeace nuclear expert who led the radiation monitoring team in Fukushima. “The impact on humans and the environment will linger for decades to come. We must put an end to the dangers of nuclear energy.”
As part of an anti-nuclear energy campaign here, members of Greenpeace will tour the country, visiting communities near nuclear plants and candidate sites until June 21.
Greenpeace is one of the most influential environmental organizations in the world with 41 offices across Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Pacific.