nuclear-news

Psychological impact of Fukushima nuclear crisis

The crisis will likely drag on for months, hindered by a major conundrum: how to keep reactors cool while also disposing of highly radioactive water pooling in and under the plant.

One month on psychological impact is only sinking in – The Irish Times – Mon, Apr 11, 2011 DAVID McNEILL in Tokyo The cherry blossom season is party time in Japan, but this year it has been overshadowed by tragedy and loss…..Lights in Tokyo are dimmed, restaurants are half empty and most cherry blossom parties are a muted affair, overshadowed by the tragedy that befell the northeast on March 11th and the nuclear crisis that it sparked in Fukushima, 250km (155 miles) up the coast from the capital….

..Police in radiation suits only began last week searching for about 2,400 bodies inside the toxic 20km exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant…..
Engineers inside the Fukushima plant continue battling to restore cooling systems to at least four of the plant’s six reactors, and slow contamination. The crisis will likely drag on for months, hindered by a major conundrum: how to keep reactors cool while also disposing of highly radioactive water pooling in and under the plant.

The engineers pull back every day to J-Village, a temporary base about 20km (12.4 miles) away run by plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco). Workers in radiation suits and masks arrive and leave all day at the facility. Inside the main building, Tepco officials hand out protective clothing, dosimeters, iodine pills and water……

People in towns and cities outlying the exclusion zone are slowly drifting back to their homes but thousands are still taking refuge throughout the country. More than 153,000 are still homeless, waiting for insurance, money for relatives or temporary housing. For some, the psychological impact is only beginning to sink in now. “There have already been suicides,” says Yuji Saeki, a clinical psychologist who has been working voluntarily in the coastal city of Ishinomaki, which lost 5,200 citizens. “When you ask people in the northwest, ‘Are you okay?’ they always say ‘Yes’. But they’re not okay.”

* Japan’s ruling party, the Democratic Party of Japan, fared badly in weekend local elections after prime minister Naoto Kan came under fire for his handling of the nuclear crisis. It lost almost 70 seats in the election for prefectural assemblies and also lost to the Liberal Democratic Party in three gubernatorial polls…..

One month on psychological impact is only sinking in – The Irish Times – Mon, Apr 11, 2011

April 11, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011