2003 年 7 巻 1 号 p. 91-101
The Chugoku Electric Power Company (CEPC) has plans for constructing a nuclear power plant (two reactors, 137.3 megawatts each) on Nagashima Island of Kaminoseki Town situated in the Suo-nada Sea, the Western-most portion of the Seto Inland Sea National Park, Japan. The Seto Inland Sea, the biggest half-closed water system in Japan, has suffered from deterioration of its natural environment since the 1970s caused by landfilling, dredging, and industria1 sewage from the deve1opment of industrial complexes. lnthe1980s, the pollution here became one of the most serious social and environmental problems of Japan. It has been revealed recently that the biodiversity of the Suo-nada Sea is exceptionally well conserved in spite of such pollution. Nagashima Island is on the east end of this Suo-nada Sea. and thanks to the warm Kuroshio current washing its untouched coastlines, which are immune from artificial banks, it has by far the best conserved shallow water maritime biodiversity in today's Japan. The Japanese government launched the Environmental Impact Assessment Law in June1999, and the proposed Kaminoseki Power Plant became the first case of a nuclear power plant in Japan to which this new law was to be applied. The Committee for Techno1ogical Evaluation of Environmental Impact Assessment of Yamaguchi Prefecture judged the Preparatory Report made by CEPC (April 1999) as unsatisfactory, and the Eco1ogical Society of Japan (ESJ) expressed their academic concern about the conservation of biodiversity around Nagashima (March 2000), and it demanded a re-assessment (March 200l). Although the project was accepted as a national one by the Japanese government in July 2001, it is still at a stand-stil1owing to many obstacles and opinions against the project: not all the landowners agreed to sell their land, a fishing cooperative at nearby Iwaishima Island has refused to accept any compensation for the possible loss of their fishing rights, and so on. The authors illustrate some of the recent discoveries from their research, and propose an alternative project of an eco-museum for a more sustainable use of the island ecosystem and the surrounding sea. Nagashima Island wi11become a focus of ecotour and environmental education that will ensure a wise and more sustainable use of the Seto Inland Sea than constructing nuclear power plants in the midst of this sanctuary worthy of its nomination as a World Heritage Site.
