The USS La Jolla, a 6,927-ton Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine, pulled into the U.S. naval base at Sasebo (located in the city of Sasebo in Nagasaki prefecture) at around 10 a.m. Monday, or August 4, and the main purpose of the docking is reportedly for the rest and recreation of its crews. As the news was just released two days earlier that another vessel, the Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Houston, had leaked minimally with radioactivity, the port call of La Jolla has given rise to aversion of local resident groups instantly, and they held protest rallies Monday afternoon.
A US navy commander disclosed on August 1, or last Friday, that the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Houston that had called at a U.S naval base in Sasebo in late March, and that water from a valve slowly dripped from its nuclear power plant during its docking. The U.S. army notified the Japanese government of the outlined process of the accident last Thursday, or July 31.
The Submarine USS Houston visited a U.S. naval base in Sasebo, Japan for a week in late March, and then stopped in Guam from late May to mid-June. The Submarine sat in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii for about three weeks before it was dry-docked in Mid July. When it had a routine checkup in Hawaii, it was found with a possibility of an accident involving a leakage of little radioactivity. A physical checkup of its crew members who had been in contact with dripping water, nevertheless, indicates that they were not affected in any way by radioactivity, noted a senior US Navy officer. The leakage of USS Houston was reported to a health department with the State of Hawaii on July 25, but the Japanese government was notified about it one week later.
There have been a chain of accidents or mishaps with the U.S. military relating to nuclear matters since early this year. A massive fire broke out aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington in May with a claimed loss of up to 70 million U.S. dollars. It appeared to be caused by smoking and the nuclear-submarine commander was removed from duty. In June，a U.S. Air Force unit's nuclear weapons security was found with problems and two top U.S. air force officials resigned. The accident of Submarine USS Houston was exposed with an instance of water dripping from its nuclear power plant, and this has added aggravated worries to Japanese public over the deployment of nuclear-powered carriers in Japan.
U.S. nuclear submarines have visited most frequently a U.S. navy base at the White Sandy Beaches in Okinawa prefecture. They made 26 port calls to the base so far this year, as against 24 visits for the whole of last year, itself an annual record. Altogether, more than 1,200 U.S. nuclear-powered submarines have called at the port of Yokosuka in Kanagawa prefecture, Sasebo port in Nagasaki prefecture and the White Sandy Beaches port in Okinawa prefecture in the last 44 years since 1964. Consequently, there were ensuing security worries and growing concern to populace in Japan in the wake of these port visits.
The deliberate dual delay by the U.S. side and the Japanese Foreign Ministry on their respective reports with regard to the nuclear leakage accident in the Submarine USS Houston has filled residents in various areas of Japan with anger and suspicions. A ranking Japanese Foreign Ministry official disclosed on August 2, or last Saturday that they had been informed of the mishap by the US navy a day earlier but they failed to relay the related areas promptly for the reason that they believed it did not affect human bodies so they thought they were not in need of notifying it immediately. As for the cause of its failure to notify on the nuclear leakage accident, the Japanese Foreign Ministry declared on August 4 that they would work to make improvements in dealing with possible similar accidents in the future and will report to the related agencies in the prime time when they are briefed on them by the U.S. side.
The frequent occurrence of nuclear-related accidents shows that "the safety myth the U.S. Navy (equipped with nuclear-powered submarines) has been boasting has collapsed," says a noted Japanese commentator on world affairs. And Japan should beef up the exercise of its sovereignty over safety supervision and keep improving its notifying mechanism. Moreover, along with the lengthening of the Iraq war, an excessive recruitment of GIs with their service duration extended in Iraq, he acknowledged, their morale has been sinking low, with lax disciplines and a disarrayed military order, so that accidents of this sort are on rise.
By People's Daily Online and its author is Yu Qing, a PD resident reporter in Japan.
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