The Chugoku Electric Power Company (CEPC) plans to construct a nuclear power plant with two 137.3-megawatt reactors on Nagashima Island, near Kaminoseki, which borders the Suo-nada Sea in the western-most portion of the Seto Inland Sea National Park, Japan. The natural environment of the Seto Inland Sea, the biggest partially closed water system in Japan, has deteriorated since the 1970s due to the effects of landfilling, dredging, and industrial pollutants associated with the development of industrial complexes. Recently, it was revealed that despite this pollution the biodiversity of the Suo-nada Sea is still exceptionally well conserved. It currently has the best-conserved shallow water maritime biodiversity in Japan. The following rare or endangered species are found near the proposed site: falcons (Falco peregrinus), finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides), chordates (Branchiostoma belcheri), brachiopods (Discinisca sparselineata), and numerous new, rare, or endangered molluscan species, of which the cornirostrid Tomura cf. Yashima is particularly important. The Japanese government enacted the Environmental Impact Assessment Law in June 1999, and the proposed Kaminoseki Power Plant is the first nuclear power plant in Japan to which this new law applies. Surprisingly, the Preparatory Report published by the CEPC (April 1999) failed to include any of the above species. In March 2000, The Ecological Society of Japan expressed concern regarding the conservation of biodiversity around Nagashima, and demanded a re-assessment (March 2001). Although the Japanese government accepted the project in July 2001, it remains at a standstill owing to the many obstacles facing it, including local landowners who have not agreed to sell their land and a fishing cooperative on nearby Iwaishima Island that has refused to accept compensation for the possible loss of their fishing rights.
