If a Chernobyl-scale accident were to occur, critics fear the scale of the damage and the evacuation that would be required. Mitsubishi claims that, as a Japanese company, it is experienced in building earthquake-resistant reactors. For some, that claim seems less convincing in the wake of the Kobe disaster, which completely destroyed many allegedly quake-proof structures. In Japan, Mitsubishi has been working to maintain a high level of safety in nuclear power comparable with that of other large scale industrial technologies. Major accidents notwithstanding, there are also troubling questions about what to do with the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel that the reactors would generate.
Environmentalists say there is no ecologically acceptable method of radioactive waste disposal.
There have been rumors that Indonesia will use one of its uninhabited islands as a disposal site. We certainly wouldn't approve of them taking that avenue. Environmentalists and organizations in the Philippines are already actively working with Indonesian opponents to prevent the nuclear program from going ahead. We fought government plans to open a nuclear power here. We don't want it built next door in Indonesia.