Almost one year has passed since the disaster, but radioactive contamination is still spreading

After several explosions at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March last year, areas in and around Fukushima equivalent to twice the size of the county of Devon in the UK became radiation control areas. (areas exposed to 0.6μSV/ or more per hour, which those under 18 years of age are not normally allowed to enter and where special clothing must be worn to protect the body from radiation exposure).   Eighty thousand people were evacuated from an area 20 km in radius around the Fukushima plant, but the population of Fukushima prefecture is 2 million, and even Fukushima city, 50 km away, is no longer safe for young children.  It is obvious how many people are still trapped in radiation control areas.  Families whose children are exhibiting symptoms such as nosebleeds and diarrhea have been trying to evacuate with little support from the government. So far only 36,000 people including children managed to evacuate outside Fukushima prefecture voluntarily,  but the rest are forced to stay, keeping their children indoors most of the time. 

Since the disaster 4 reactors have been continuously leaking the ionized radiation into the environment.  We are also very concerned about ionized radiation spreading well into the Kanto area, where Tokyo is.  We have heard reports that more and more hotspots have been found in various places in the east of Japan including Tokyo. (hotspots are small areas where radioactive accumulated in rainwater and sludge in puddles, gutters, waste-water purifying plants, etc.  Forest areas are also high in ionized radiation, especially in fallen leaves, wet soil, plants, grasses, and wild vegetables such as mushrooms.  Besides this, the incineration of radioactive debris without proper filters is taking place in other areas, contributing more and more to spreading ionized radiation to the rest of Japan. 

Recently we heard that Tokyo station has become a hotspot because so many passengers from affected areas including Fukushima pass through it, carrying the ionized radiation on their shoes.  The station is linked by an extensive system of underground passageways to surrounding commercial buildings and shopping centres, which means that contamination simply continues to accumulate. 

Radioactive contamination in the food is another big issue in Japan.  Various reports says that people are eating radioactive food in Japan because some of the food in the market are unchecked, and also the “safety limits” are so unrealistically high.

It feels painful to report these things, but at the same time it feels important to let the rest of the world know what is happening in Japan.  Once radiation is released into the environment, it doesn’t disappear.  We can only move it somewhere else and wait for the life of each radioactive element to halve and halve till it eventually it becomes harmless, and in some cases this would take a billion years.  If a person ingests radioactive material, they continue to be exposed to internal radiation, damaging cells inside their body, until the material leaves their body.  Radiation affects not only humans but all living things from viruses and bacteria, to plants and flowers, insects and birds and all animals.

People say that here in UK, we are safe because we have no earthquakes or tsunamis, but the Chernobyl disaster was caused by human error, and a nuclear plant could also be targeted by terrorists.  As long as nuclear plants exist, the next accident could happen in anywhere in the world – in fact, many small nuclear accidents have already happened and the most likely continue to happen.  Besides this, nuclear plants (especially reprocessing plants) damage our environment even without any accidents.  The question of how we can reduce CO2 emissions, is important of course, but isn’t it even more important to address the issue of avoiding nuclear disasters, because once such a disaster has happened, it is impossible to turn the clock back.

References:

*Calendar of Nuclear Accidents:

http://archive.greenpeace.org/comms/nukes/chernob/rep02.html

*Chernobyl Million causalities:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc72kT_gFNQ

*Health Risk Reports around Sellafiled in West Cumbria in the UK

http://www.cnic.jp/english/

http://www.nonukes.org/w15cancr.htm

http://www.llrc.org/health/subtopic/child_leuk_wales.htm

http://www.wise-paris.org/english/reports/STOAFinalStudyEN.pdf