Fukushima, a continuing cause for concern
On March 11th 2011, the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear power plant was knocked out by a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Three of the plant’s six reactors suffered core meltdowns and hydrogen gas explosions. Three years later, more than 300,000 people remain ‘nuclear refugees,’ unable to return to their homes. Those who have been allowed to go back find themselves in an ‘untouchable’ region: Nobody visits it and the public believes that its livestock and fish are still contaminated.
By late 2013, 1,600 nuclear refugees had died. More than 35% of some 38,000 Fukushima children examined were found to have cysts or nodules on their thyroid glands, whereas a control group of Japanese children from other places showed only 1%. Despite this, the Japanese government raised the “permissible” level of radiation. Children can now legally be exposed to 20 times more radiation than was previously allowed.
The Fukushima plant is still leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean at the rate of 400 tons per day. Radioactive cesium, a carcinogen that accumulates in the body tissue of animals, fish and humans has been found throughout mainland Japan. This has closed the fishing industry, and is present in large migratory fish such as Bluefin tuna as far away as the coast of California. Radioactive water from Fukushima is expected to reach the West Coast of the United States in early 2014.
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan
on November 7, 2013.
(Photo: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Pool via The New York Times)
