Tokyo, November 1, 2013


Dear Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,


Two and half years after the Fukushima nuclear accident, it is now undeniable that severe nuclear accidents cannot be coped with by a single state, nor by electric companies.
The majority of the Japanese, including 5 Former Prime Ministers are now against nuclear power generation.

As regards the unit 4 crisis which is the most pressing global security issue, the Japanese Government and TEPCO admit that a mega earthquake surpassing intensity 6＋ will make collapse the already wrecked building and the cooling pool containing ten times more cesium 137 than Chernobyl.
 There are in total 15093 fuel rods assemblies at the site.
 Frequent earthquakes continue to rattle and even shake the decaying building. In Fukushima, the number of earthquakes with intensity 1 since January of this year amounts to 505, of which those with intensity 2 and beyond= 189, intensity 3 and beyond =58, intensity 4 and beyond=14, and intensity 5 and beyond= 1 !
 If the worst happens, the total evacuation will be imposed and it will be, as top scientists of the world warn, the beginning of a major global catastrophe.

TEPCO is to start removing the fuel rod assemblies from the unit 4 on November 8. This operation will take more than a year.
The international community manifests growing concern over the involvement of TEPCO that has lost credibility completely both at home and abroad.
Prime Minister Shinzou Abe has recently expressed his intention to seek international cooperation.
I am convinced that the world is expecting you to play an invaluable role in its materialization.

It is urgently needed to set up an international task force to assist Japan by deploying all possible means to reduce the risks of unloading spent fuel from the unit 4 under conditions of unprecedented complexity.
It should go hand in hand with the establishment of a new system based on the full assumption of responsibilities by the state, not by electric companies.
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The task force to be created under the new system, consisting of best selected experts, would provide, based on neutral assessment, adequate strategies for the stabilization of the Fukushima Daiichi.

The crisis of Japan as a nation is being coped with as a crisis of the management of TEPCO ! The restart of nuclear reactors is required by TEPCO and other electric companies.
I warned in 2004 that the fate of Japan will be decided by electric companies.
I am warning now that the fate of the world will be decided by electric companies.

It is the crisis of Japan as a nation.
It is a global security issue.

Please allow me to count on your leadership to cope with this unprecedented crisis.

With highest and warmest regards,
Mitsuhei Murata
Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland




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