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City petitions to know cause of nuke sub leak

NAGASAKI, Japan — The Sasebo city assembly unanimously passed a petition Thursday calling on the central government to urge the U.S. to clarify what caused a minute radiation leak from one of its nuclear-powered submarines at Sasebo port.

The petition also asks the central government to urge the United States to come up with steps to ensure no similar incident is repeated.

It also demands that the submarine Houston, which experienced the leak, and other U.S. nuclear-powered vessels not be readily granted port calls in Sasebo unless safety, monitoring and disaster preparedness measures are established.

A U.S. naval base is located in Sasebo.

The southwestern Japan city earlier expressed its opposition to the Houston’s entry to the port, after the revelation earlier this month that the submarine leaked water with trace amounts of radioactivity when it visited in March.

In the petition, the assembly presses Tokyo to urge the U.S. military to take part in the city’s nuclear disaster preparedness drills, noting that the military has stayed away from them.

The municipal lawmakers are calling for the immediate installation of radiation monitoring posts in the southern part of the port, where U.S. submarines are typically berthed.

Some municipal lawmakers are set to visit Tokyo in early September to hand copies of the petition to the Foreign Ministry and the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.

The petition will also be sent to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono and House of Councillors President Satsuki Eda, they said.