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>> million times more poison than lead.- Hide quoted text -

>
> Japanese were also against US neclear-powered carriers.

> Yokosuka groups rally against basing
> U.S. nuclear-powered carriers at city
> By Steve Liewer and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
>
> YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan -- Labor and environmental groups want the
> city of Yokosuka to stand against future basing of a nuclear-powered
> aircraft carrier at this installation, even though the U.S. Navy says
> such a move isn't planned at present.
>
> The group -- whose name translates roughly to "Citizens' Group
> Concerned About Yokosuka Becoming Home Port for U.S. Nuclear-powered
> Aircraft Carriers" -- presented a petition with 72,445 signatures to
> city officials Monday, a city spokesman said.
>
> The petition asks Yokosuka Mayor Hideo Sawada to quash a long-delayed
> $10 million extension of the base's Piedmont Pier. Planned since 1989,
> the project would allow the base to better accommodate U.S. Navy
> supercarriers. The petition also asks him to oppose the permanent
> placement of any nuclear carriers in the city, which is home to the
> Navy's largest overseas base.
>
> "We must convey the voices of people in Yokosuka and Japan who oppose
> future plans to make Yokosuka a home port for nuclear-powered
> carriers," said Masahiko Goto, one of the group's leaders.
>
> Cmdr. James Graybeal, a spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Japan, said
> the Navy is not considering any such move.
>
> "There is no plan to forward-deploy a nuclear aircraft carrier to
> Japan," Graybeal said.
>
> Graybeal said the Navy has received no word from Yokosuka city
> officials about the petition.
>
> The Department of Defense will face a dilemma over its Western Pacific
> carrier battle group in the next few years. The Yokosuka-based USS
> Kitty Hawk, one of only three remaining non-nuclear carriers in the
> Navy's fleet, is slated for decommissioning in 2008. The other two
> conventionally powered carriers, the USS Constellation and the USS
> John F. Kennedy, are scheduled for decommissioning in 2003 and 2018,
> respectively. Soon, DOD must decide how to deploy that battle group
> after 2008.
>
> Among the options identified by outside analysts of Navy issues:
>
> § Move the John F. Kennedy to Yokosuka for the rest of its
> life -- a move that would be easier, following the decision last year
> to man the ship with active-duty Navy sailors instead of active-duty
> personnel and reservists who had operated the ship in the past.
>
> § Refurbish either the Constellation or the Kitty Hawk.
>
> § Persuade the Japanese to accept a nuclear carrier based on
> its shores.
>
> § Move the battle group elsewhere -- most likely Guam, where
> government officials recently have lobbyied for more Navy ships.
>
> Graybeal said the Navy will have to notify the Japanese well in
> advance if it decides to replace the Kitty Hawk.
>
> "It's a very long process," he said. "There is no specific time line."
>
> Neither the government of Japan nor the city of Yokosuka has taken an
> official stand on nuclear carriers, though the Japanese public and
> press have been skittish over the years about nuclear-powered carriers
> and submarines visiting the country's ports.
>
> The country's political left has lobbied particularly hard against
> nuclear-powered ships. The Yokosuka chapter of the NEPA Coalition, a
> national environmental group, has for years tried to stop the planned
> expansion of the Piedmont Pier.
>
> Graybeal said that project was first proposed in 1991, the year the
> USS Independence replaced the smaller USS Midway in Yokosuka. (The
> Kitty Hawk, larger than the Independence, uses two berths at another
> pier.) It would extend the pier from 850 feet to 1,320 feet and add
> other service upgrades.
>
> The Japanese government began construction in February 1999 but soon
> discovered high levels of mercury and other contaminants in the soil
> under the pier from the base's days as an Imperial Navy base. Later
> that year, the government began a $25 million project to enclose the
> pier in a concrete sarcophagus, to keep the contaminants from leaching
> into Tokyo Bay.
>
> Shoji Shimizu, the leader of Yokosuka's NEPA Coalition chapter, said
> the groups began gathering the signatures from across the country in
> November 1998. He said about 40 percent of the signatures come from
> Yokosuka residents, although a city spokesman estimated that figure is
> closer to 25 percent.
>
> Shimizu said the group wants to force the city to take a stand before
> the United States takes any action about replacing the Kitty Hawk.
>
> "We feel it necessary for Yokosuka to express opposition in advance
> because it is too late after U.S. government makes [a] request to
> Japanese government [on basing a nuclear carrier there]," Shimuzu
> said. "It is so obvious, one can easily imagine that Japanese
> government will not have the guts to refuse a request from U.S.
> government."
>
> Nagatoshi Esashi, the city of Yokosuka's military liaison, said Sawada
> is considering the petition and should decide whether to take action
> within a week. He said the city has never discussed the matter either
> with the Navy or with its own national leaders.
>
> "We follow the stance of the Japanese government," Esashi said. "We
> will not make any comment on hypothetical situations."