Japanese farmer spreads anti-nuclear message in S. Africa, Africa’s only nuclear energy power

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/japanese-farmer-spreads-anti-nuclear-message-in-s-africa-africas-only-nuclear-energy-power/2012/02/29/gIQAFPqFiR_story.html

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, February 29, 11:35 AM

JOHANNESBURG — A farmer evacuated from her home near a Japanese nuclear power plant visited Soweto Wednesday to talk to impoverished South Africans about how the poor are worst hit by catastrophes like the one triggered by an earthquake in her homeland.

Anti-nuclear activists from Greenpeace, which is trying to spark a grass-roots anti-nuclear movement here, brought Ayako Oga to South Africa. The country has Africa’s only nuclear energy plant and plans to build more.

Oga said she fled her home some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Fukushima plant on March 11, the day a massive earthquake hit Japan. A power pylon toppled, cutting electricity to the cooling system at Fukushima. The roof of one reactor was blown off by a hydrogen explosion.

Poor people who were evacuated to escape leaking radiation have found it hard to get jobs elsewhere in Japan, Oga said. She added the rich are able to afford food that is guaranteed not to have been contaminated by radiation, and have better access to information about how to stay safe.