Oi Nuclear Plant Occupied By Protesters

One more update: Iori at Fukushima Diary has some translated tweets and photos people took during the protest.
“We found police crying. I asked one of the riot police officers if he’s actually against the restart of nuclear plant, he turned to me and slightly nodded to bear up in tragedy. There were numbers of times when I couldn’t stop my tears.”

UPDATE: LAST ONE: The protest is over. Everyone packed up and left. No arrests, No injuries. The gates have been unchained. Photo is people all together walking away from the police line.

Update: 11:38pm Japan time. Protesters and drummers are still there as is the police line. People showing no intent on leaving. There were rumors police were going to remove people but it appears that has not happened. The row of vans chained across the gate are still there. NY Times is now reporting the protest. Twitter reports cite that the workers to restart the reactor were brought in by ferry to the sea docks. The protests made broadcast news in Germany, ARD broadcast the protest on their news. The video is online via ARD Germany
German media, ZDF was also there and published this report. There is also a video in the ZDF page. Some comments made, the doctor says the “rolling blackout” threat was invented by the govt to get the nukes online again. The town assembly man Hiroyuki Kawai Osaka govmt advisor (with glasses) says the stress tests are “bullshit”.

These video channels are currently streaming the protest.

http://www.ustwrap.info/multi/iwj-fukui1::irene-channel::iwj-oita1::yuzuru-k

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iwakamiyasumi#utm_campaign=t.co&utm_source=3532343&utm_medium=social

http://www.ustwrap.info/show/iwj-oita1
more photos at the bottom
Update: 13:00 in Japan. Raining steady. People still playing and dancing. The police have not moved.

Update: Riot police have increased. Protesters are forming lines and locking arms.

Update: More people with instruments and drums. Quite a few small children in attendance now. Crowd is huge and peaceful people dancing. Police have changed into body armor. Lots of images added to the bottom of the page

Update: NHK is citing the protests and that the control rods would be moved at 9pm Sunday at Oi in the presence of a METI vice minister and Oi Mayor. The only entrance to Oi is currently blockaded. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120701_02.html
Some more rested police are now manning the line. It looks like additional police may have shown  up. Some updated live streaming channels. Multi-channel here
http://www.ustwrap.info/multi/iwj-fukui1::irene-channel::iwj-oita1::yuzuru-k
IWJ here
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iwj-oita1#utm_campaign=t.co&utm_source=8481195&utm_medium=social
Update: Twitter reports of 200-500 people on site. The older people were on a bus from Tokyo. Rumor of a need to bring in more staff to finish the restart of Oi today. They can not get them in the one road and gate to the plant and that KEPCO may try to bring them in by sea. The riot police look very exhausted. One looked on the verge of collapse.

Update: A large contingent of older people just showed up. It is raining again. People dancing on the front gate. Some images of the vehicles parked sideways to block the gate are added at the bottom of this post.

Update: Various people via twitter asking for more people to show up at Oi to help with the blockade. Rumor of a 9pm restart of the plant.

Update: Daylight, the band is playing again.
via Twitter:

At the entrance of the Oiigenpatsu are 5000 people gathered outside Oi nuclear plant entrance since yesterday evening more than 5,000 people gathered from all over the country have prevented me from running again all night long yesterday.

 

Update: Morning has struck in Oi. Daylight and the protesters are still there. New photo at bottom shows people standing in front of the tunnel entrance to Oi. Asahi Shimbun now covering the protest.
Some reporting from the early part of the protest has been translated to English. People have chained themselves to the plant gate to prevent entry.

Update: the band started playing again and people are dancing in the rain and up at the police line.

Update: KEPCO official with bullhorn says  “Please go out of the site”  to the crowd. It riles everyone back up they start chanting again.

Update: Kyodo news picks up the protest, first news media to do so. Estimates the crowd at 650 people.
Via twitter:
Tatsuo Fujii @ tatsuofujii
Fukui prefectural police do not answer the phone.

Call Oi power plant. Was told to talk with the demonstrators.

Update: it is quiet yet protesters and police stand face to face. Not sure what will happen next. Reports that the police kicked a woman protester. An older man talking at the police: We do not behave violently. We are not stupid. We want to discuss it with KEPCO. ”

Update: things near the gate have become tense with police. People are claiming unnecessary violence from police. Police are shouting something from PA system. New pictures at bottom of page. 3 current live streams on 1 page can be found here.

The only road in and front gate of the Oi nuclear plant in Japan is blocked with a large group of protesters that have set up camp. Oi is in the process of restarting and is expected to begin full operation again on a few hours. The protesters have set up a band who have been playing while people dance. It can be seen on IWJ channel here live. More live video of the standoff can be found here.

The live video connection has been in and out but that is not surprising considering Oi is in a remote location. More on the situation at Oi as we hear it. Images as they are captured will be added to this page.

This article would not be possible without the extensive efforts of the SimplyInfo research team
Join the conversation at chat.simplyinfo.org

© 2011-2023 SimplyInfo.org, Fukuleaks.org All Rights Reserved Content cited, quoted etc. from other sources is under the respective rights of that content owner. If you are viewing this page on any website other than http://www.simplyinfo.org (or http://www.fukuleaks.org) it may be plagiarized, please let us know. If you wish to reproduce any of our content in full or in more than a phrase or quote, please contact us first to obtain permission.