LEAD: Anti-nuclear meeting on energy, radiation after Fukushima

Jan 14, 2012, 6:44 GMT

Tokyo - More than 10,000 people gathered at an anti-nuclear conference in Japan Saturday to discuss future energy, radioactive contamination and anti-nuclear movements in Asia in the wake of the world's worst atomic accident in 25 years.

The two-day meeting in Yokohama included experts, activists and lawmakers from 30 countries and 200 civic groups from across Japan.

'Japan has huge responsibility' to lead the world away from nuclear energy after the Fukushima plant disaster, said Tatsuya Yoshioka, conference chairman and director of Peace Boat.

'We have a strong feeling that we need to create a network beyond border to oppose nuclear power generation.'

After the plant was struck by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, a series of blasts and fires triggered the massive release of radioactive material into the environment.

The plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co suffered meltdowns at three of its six reactors. More than 80,000 residents have been forced to leave the area.

Rebecca Harms, a European Parliament member from Germany, talked to Japanese experts and activists and visited areas near the plant.

'An overarching question for me is: are people able to learn from the catastrophe?' Harms said. 'Good conclusions and strong consequences from the Fukushima disaster are taking place only in places far from Japan.'

She referred to anti-nuclear movements in her country and the crisis in the nuclear industry in Europe.

'Political impact is very strong in Europe,' she said. 'The (Fukushima disaster) has to change the world.'

Japan's central and local governments 'must learn the right consequences and the right lessons from Fukushima,' Harms said.