Two Years after the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Meltdowns — the Prefecture’s Forests Are Radioactive — a Very Short Video Shows the Impact of Corporate Greed and Complicit Governmental Malfeasance on Ordinary People

© 2013 Peter Free

 

10 March 2013

 

 

Citation — to 2:51 minute video

 

Steve Chao, Fukushima forests found to be radioactive, Al Jazeera (10 March 2013) (with embedded 2:51 minute video)

 

 

Theme — we forget morality lessons, when we’re not reminded — which works to the benefit of those who continue to depredate the planet and its peoples

 

Long-acting disasters disappear from public consciousness, when the media stops covering them.  Which, in the United States’ case, means almost immediately.  Object lessons are either never learned or promptly forgotten.

 

That has been the case with the Fukushima Daiichi radiation disaster, which pitted a foreseeable tsunami against Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) poorly designed and run nuclear power plant on 11 March 2011 — exactly two years ago.

 

I wrote about the implications of the Fukushima reactor meltdowns here, here, here, and here, including those applicable to the United States.  But for most, Fukushima faded from attention in 2011 — despite the obvious fact that radiation releases of this magnitude never constitute short-term problems.

 

Today, Al Jazeera reminded us of the problem’s longevity in a very short video that documents Professor Yuichi Onda’s findings about radioactive cesium contained in Fukushima prefecture’s forests.

 

Note

 

Dr. Onda directs a laboratory at the Center for Research in Isotopes and Environmental Dynamics at the University of Tsukuba.

 

The “Fukushima Radiation Monitoring of Water, Soil and Entrainment” is one of his projects.

 

According to reporter Steve Chao, Dr. Onda’s team has found hazardous levels of 750,000 becquerels per kilogram of fallen leaves, needles, and soil.  There is also substantial radioactivity contained in the trees themselves.

 

 

What is a becquerel?

 

 A becquerel is the SI (Système international d'unités) “metric” unit for radioactivity.  A becquerel refers to the radioactive decay of one nucleus per second.

 

Becquerels are units that are not directly related (or relate-able) to public health.  The amount of material required to emit one becquerel changes with time.  And radioactivity that is expressed in becquerels tells us nothing specific about (i) the nature of the radiation, (ii) the degree of our exposure to it, or (iii) its ultimate impact on our health.  Other units have been invented to do this.

 

Note

 

For more on the subject of measuring radioactivity in relationship to human health, see:

 

© 2011 David L. Chandler, Explained: rad, rem, sieverts, becquerels: A guide to terminology about radiation exposure, Massachusetts Institute of Technology – News Office (28 March 2011)

 

What does Professor Onda think should be done?

 

Dr. Onda has recommended that the forests be cut down, so has to prevent the radioactive cesium that is already in the trees from contributing to the atmosphere and to that already accumulated on and in the ground.

 

He fears that the Japanese government’s attempts to clean up the villages in the evacuated zone will fail, if no simultaneous effort is made to get rid of the contaminated trees.

 

However, given that forests cover 70 percent of Fukushima prefecture, Dr. Onda doubts that the Japanese government will be willing or able to undertake the tree-clearing task.  Which means that the whole place is going to stay dangerous for a very long time.

 

 

Implications for the people in the prefecture

 

Steven Chao’s reporting concludes with a brief look at what happened to the evacuated people, who had once lived within 40 kilometers of the meltdown zone.  Mikio Watanabe and his wife were among the people removed from their homes.  An outdoors lover, she became more depressed than Mr. Watanabe realized and committed suicide.  He is haunted with remorse.

 

The video glimpses the beauty that the evacuees had to leave behind.  Native Americans and people from rural and quasi-rural backgrounds can relate to the heartbreak.

 

 

The moral? — Corporate greed and government complicity with it wreck people’s lives

 

The Fukushima video lasts only 2:51 minutes.  It’s worth a look.

 

When we’re not paying attention, the cycle of abuse continues.