Spokesman Books

Turkey's draft atomic cooperation agreement with Japan would allow Ankara to use sensitive technologies that have potential nuclear-weapon applications. The bilateral accord would permit the export of Japanese nuclear technology to Turkey, which has contracted with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to build four atomic reactors in the city of Sinop. The deal includes a clause that permits Ankara to extract plutonium from spent nuclear fuel and to enrich uranium -- practices that could be used to produce either reactor fuel or bomb-grade material, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the nuclear accord when he met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo on Tuesday. The two men agreed to work to expedite the process for approving the $22 billion reactor-construction project, the Associated Press reported. The Japanese parliament likely will debate passage of the nuclear cooperation agreement when it reconvenes later th...

Leaked EU nuclear stress tests reveal hundreds of defects By Nikolaj Nielsen for EUobserver Hundreds of defects have been found throughout Europe’s nuclear reactors and mostly in France, according to an EU stress test report. The stress tests assess whether any of Europe’s 143 licensed nuclear power plants can withstand extreme events such as earthquakes and terrorists attacks. The tests were introduced after the nuclear accident in Japan's Fukushima some 18 months ago. EU energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger is to present the final report and recommendations in the upcoming EU summit on 18 and 19 October. “ We have reassessed all the nuclear power plants in Europe in the light of Fukushima ,” said commission energy spokesperson Marlene Holzner on Monday (1 October). Oettinger is also scheduled to present his findings to his fellow EU commissioners on Wednesday. The European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (Ensreg), a group of senior officials from the national nuc...

NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, NOT PROLIFERATION! The Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo) has sent the following message to the 16th Summit of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, meeting in Tehran, Iran from 26 to 31 August 2012. Hiroshi TAKA, representative director of Gensuikyo, presented the message in person. On the occasion of the 16th summit of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, we extend warmest greetings of solidarity to you, and through you to the people each of you represent, from the movement against atomic and hydrogen bombs working in Japan, the only A-bombed country in the world. During the period of the Cold War, which followed the end of World War Two, the Non-aligned Movement played the key role in establishing a peaceful and just world order based on the UN Charter, by opposing the division of the world by military blocs and the nuclear arms race, and firmly promoting non-alignment, national independence and sovereig...

Key Words 9: A Journal of Cultural Materialism Much of this issue of Key Words has to do with border crossings. Five of the essays are the result of the willingness of colleagues in Swansea and in Tokyo to cross international borders in order to engage in a transnational discussion of Williams’s work. Three contributions focus on questions of language. While this issue is primarily about Raymond Williams’s work, his ideas and influence, this section brings two other key thinkers into the dialogue – Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Terry Eagleton, who is perhaps Williams’s foremost disciple. Contents: Editors’ Preface Signs, Socialism and Ethics: Eagleton on Language - Tony Crowley Terry Eagleton, Postmodernism and Ireland - Edward Larrissy Williams and Wittgenstein: Language, Politics and Structure of Feeling - Ben Ware Border Country: Then and Now - Simon Dentith Raymond Williams in Japan Essays by contemporary Japanese critics, edited and introduced by Daniel G. Williams Guest Editor’s Intr...

This year's World Conference against A&H Bombs will gather in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the wake of the devastating nuclear disaster which is still unfolding at Fukushima . Understandably, this is one of the main themes running through this year's Conference. Tony Simpson addresses some of the questions raised by Fukushima in the paper he will present to the Conference. To mark the 66th anniversary of the nuclear bombardment of these two Japanese cities, on 6 August, the Russell Foundation is publishing a new edition of THE LEGACY OF CHERNOBYL by Zhores Medvedev. In his preface to the new edition, Dr Medvedev descibes how, in 1987, he met with members of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum. At that time, he had already started to study the available information about what had happened at Chernobyl the previous year, as he was not satisfied with the Soviet report to the International Atomic Energy Agency. His Japanese hosts were not interested in too many details. "We d...

The Russell Foundation has received the following appeal from our friends in the Japan Council against A and H Bombs (Gensuikyo). Dear friends, Thank you very much for your warm messages and support to us. Your messages are of great encouragement to us and all victims of the disaster. We have translated your messages into Japanese and passed them on to the victims and all Japanese people. The damage caused by earthquakes and subsequent tsunami is so horrible. All buildings were swept away. Thousands of bodies are found every day. The number of those dead and are missing is expected to be more than 11,500. The evacuees have increased more than 450,000. They are forced to stay at shelters with not enough food, water, cloths, oil for heaters and gas for cars, etc. In addition to that, the frightening accident of Fukushima power plants is threatening the safety of people and their uneasiness is growing. The municipalities and citizens of the damage struck areas have so far given strong sup...

On the Start of the New Signature Campaign in Support of “Appeal for a Total Ban on Nuclear Weapons” February 15, 2011 in Hiroshima, Nagasaki & Tokyo Dear friends, First of all, I want to express my gratitude to you and all the other friends in Japan and overseas who have given us support in preparing to launch the new signature campaign. At present, when we will soon see the 66th Summer of the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world is rapidly changing in terms of nuclear weapons. With our actions in New York, or in many other cities around the world, the NPT Review Conference in May last year declared it as its goal “to achieve the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons”, and called on all states to make “special efforts” to establish a framework for it, focusing on the proposal of UN Secretary General Ban KI-moon for the start of negotiations on a convention banning nuclear weapons. The outcome of the session of the UN General assembly towards the end of th...