FUKUSHIMA: An Ongoing Nuclear Catastrophe That Will Never Stop
Another anniversary: sure but the Fukushima nuclear disaster is still ongoing everyday of the year
Fukushima 311 Watchdogs
Every year since year 2011, at this time of the year when the anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster comes, I feel angry, tired and depressed.
First for the unwillingness to learn and to change. How many nuclear disasters have already happened and how many more will need to happen for people to finally learn and bring vital changes.
Also because when a disaster occurs it is suddenly hot news, everybody getting excited, thrilled with its sensationalism, some even exploiting it by turning it into fear porn. Then with time passing by, when it is not hot news anymore but becomes a cold old news, people kinda forget about it. They only remember it again just when its anniversary comes. But for the people on location, in Fukushima, everyday is a Fukushima anniversary, they have to live with it.
An American antinuclear friend of mine recently talking about the coming Fukushima nuclear disaster anniversary employed the word “occured”, “occured” in the past tense. I immediately reacted, english is not my mother tongue, but I pointed out to her that it was wrong for her to use the verb occur in its past tense, that it would be more correct to use the words “started”, because the Fukushima nuclear disaster started on March 11, 2011, and since then is still now ongoing unsolved.
The Fukushima nuclear disaster after 8 years is maybe a cold news, but its 3 reactors are still hot and will be still hot for decades and even more, for a very long time, as the technology to stop the fusion of a meltdown corium does not exist, has not been yet invented. Even those specially-made expensive robots cannot handle it, getting rapidly fried after few hours or a couple of days.
This is the contrary of course of the propaganda hammered by all media, orchestrated by Tepco, the Japanese Government and the Nuclear Lobby, which claims that the situation is now under control, that solutions are being worked out to gradually dismantle the whole thing. All part of a massive campaign of disinformation downplaying the real situation in the mind of the general public.
What also makes me angry is that most of the year, the media are not really covering anymore the Fukushima disaster, but at the time of the Fukushima disaster’s anniversary they are suddenly in a frenzy, each one to publish one article about it, those articles just repeating over and over again the same spiel spread over the years by Tepco. A well oiled spiel orchestrated by Dentsu, the Tepco’s public relations company, and ETHOS, the nuclear lobby’s public relations organization, working together to downplay the disaster’s situation in the mind of the general public, and to soothe the fears of the victimized population on location so as to make them stay and live with radiation in the affected zones zone. No damage control of the meltdown, but a effective damage control of the mind of the public.
No, the Fukushima nuclear disaster has not ended, it is still ongoing. The Fukushima people have to live with the radiation affecting their daily life, dangerous radioactive microparticles present everywhere, contamination of their produce, water, air and living environment. By ordering the state of emergency in 2011, the government raised the radiation threshold from the international standard of 1 mSv per year to 20mSv per year for Fukushima, declaring it safe to live with. Mind you the 20 mSv per year threshold is the international radiation threshold for nuclear workers inside nuclear plants, not for the public.Nuclear workers during their work are allowed to be exposed up to 20 mSV within a five year work period. We have now in Fukushima prefecture a population of almost 2 million people, included children and infants, left to live in contaminated territory at radiation level meant for nuclear workers only.
While the media never fail to talk about about the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors and of the decontamination of Fukushima Prefecture, they always fail to mention that those three reactors thru their unstopped meltdown are still constantly releasing radionuclides loaded gases into the open air, into the environment, distributed by winds locally and even far away.
Why none of those media ever mention the 20 plus incinerators operating in Fukushima prefecture? Those incinerators incinerate radioactive debris accumulated from land decontamination during the the past years, wanting to reduce the 16 million tons of radioactive debris scattered all over the Fukushima prefecture, usually covered by green tarpaulin to make them looked like some kind of new rice paddies from afar. Those incinerators which are also redistributing radioactive particles into the air, into the environment.
When it comes to the Shoah during WWII, there is the memory duty, to keep future generations knowing about it, to not forget, and to keep it from ever happening again.
When it comes to nuclear disasters, where is the memory duty? I believe that only to celebrate an anniversary once a year is not enough. Especially when it comes to a still ongoing unresolved disaster. How many more of such nuclear disasters do we need to us to finally force our elected politicians to put an end to the nuclear madness?
Links to various articles from March 1 to March 11, 2019, the best ones carrying *** three stars should definitely to be read:
1
***Atomic Balm Part 1: Prime Minister Abe Uses The Tokyo Olympics As Snake Oil Cure For The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Meltdowns
***The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and the Tokyo Olympics
https://apjjf.org/2019/05/Koide-Field.html
Schools refitted in Fukushima, but enrollment remains dismal
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903010026.html
5
Most mayors of disaster-hit Fukushima areas urge review of compensation guidelines: survey
Scars are there, but Fukushima residents trying to pick up pieces
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201903050058.html
Fukushima’s ice wall keeps radiation from spreading around the world
https://www.cnet.com/news/fukushima-ice-wall-prevents-leaking-of-radioactive-water/
Judge Tosses Fukushima Radiation Class Action
2019 Annual Report On The Fukushima Disaster (Technical, unfortunately based only on Tepco’s released reports, and we all know are how reliable is Tepco with facts and numbers, Tepco in 8 years have never been honest nor staighforwading with facts, lying always thru their teeth).
6
Japan leg of 2020 Olympics torch relay to start at J-Village in Fukushima
7
Nuclear evacuees to face tougher housing situations from April
Eight years after triple meltdown, Fukushima No. 1’s water woes slow to recede
8 Years On: Revenue to Fall at Fukushima Towns after Plant Decommissioning
12.5% of Japanese city-dwellers still hesitant about buying food from nuclear disaster-hit Fukushima
***First images of fuel debris fallout particles from Fukushima Daiichi
http://bristol.ac.uk/news/2019/march/fukushima-particles.html
***Eight Years on, Fukushima Still Poses Health Risks for Children
http://www.ipsnews.net/2019/03/eight-years-fukushima-still-poses-health-risks-children/
Contaminated soil remains near Fukushima homes
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190307_09/
***Fukushima at 8: Accusations of scientific misconduct concern city in Japan
The Fukushima nuclear disaster’s legacy: An inescapable stigma
https://www.cnet.com/news/the-fukushima-nuclear-disasters-legacy-an-inescapable-stigma/
8
UK, Japan scientists study radioactive Fukushima particles
23% of residents have returned to former Fukushima hazard zones
Fukushima evacuees resist return as ‘Reconstruction Olympics’ nears
Eight years on, water woes threaten Fukushima cleanup
***Fukushima : un risque de cancer de la thyroïde multiplié par 15
***Japanese government misleading UN on impact of Fukushima fallout on children, decontamination workers
Damages Suit of The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Kyoto
Over 12,000 Fukushima victims have filed 30 cases in different regions against the government and TEPCO:
Back in the water: Fukushima no-go zone gets first surf shop since disaster
***Atomic Balm Part 2: The Run For Your Life Tokyo Olympics
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***Health issues (and corruption of the medical system) after the Fukushima nuclear disaster