Lingering radioactive disaster for Japan’s ‘no go’nuclear zone

The narrow strip of hilly coastal country between Fukushima City – a metropolis of 2 million – and the crippled Daiichi nuclear plant on Japan’s east coast, is a no-go zone occupied by an invisible enemy – potentially life-threatening radiation. It is in the ground, in the atmosphere and in the sewerage…..

‘Exploding clouds of radioactive steam and debris were swept by strong winds across a broad arch of countryside, including Iitate and Minamisoma. Mountain forests, streams, rice fields, school grounds and houses were contaminated

A long wait for solace in a ravaged land, Sydney Morning Herald, Russell Skelton, June 11, 2011 Almost 100 days since the earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan, the nation struggles to give hope to its citizens

…… ‘Everybody was exposed to the fallout,” says Yamada. ”In coastal towns the panic was dreadful. Cars crashed into each other in the rush to escape, people who left their cars were run down. Snow was falling, women and children fled in what they were wearing.” The narrow strip of hilly coastal country between Fukushima City – a metropolis of 2 million – and the crippled Daiichi nuclear plant on Japan’s east coast, is a no-go zone occupied by an invisible enemy – potentially life-threatening radiation. It is in the ground, in the atmosphere and in the sewerage. Three months ago Iitate village was celebrated in tourist brochures for its fine Wagyu beef and its picturesque countryside.

Today it is a place to avoid. On this still summer morning the once verdant rice plots are choked with weeds, ancient farmhouses locked up, animals gone. Even the frogs that thrived in the flooded paddies are vanishing. Of the 6200 people who lived in Iitate, only 1200 remain and most of them will be gone within weeks. Pregnant women and children, the most susceptible to radiation-related cancers, left months ago.

Norio Kanno, Iitate’s elderly mayor, is overseeing a mass evacuation of his village and the relocation of the council to well outside the 40 kilometres recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

”Our town has been neglected and ignored by the government because it is 35 kilometres away from the reactor, but we are in the direct path of the prevailing winds. Radiation levels are much higher here than villages inside the 10-kilometre zone,” Kanno says. ”Our mountains will be contaminated for decades, our farmlands ruined and the beef industry wiped out. TEPCO [plant operator Tokyo Electric Power] is not keeping us informed about the radiation levels, and the Prime Minister has never visited. By the end of the month we will be all gone from here, we are not waiting to be told.” For those already evacuated, days pass in the grip of uncertainty. At the Haramachi junior high school about 50 people camp on the indoor basketball court, separated only by low cardboard panels. Signs of post-traumatic stress are hard to miss…… At Haramachi, located just outside the 20-kilometre exclusion zone, radiation levels are said to be well above acceptable safety levels for long-term residents……….A woman interrupts to unleash a tirade against long-dead local government officials who signed off in the 1950s on construction of TEPCO’s Fukushima plant on such a vulnerable stretch of coast. ”I worked for the council in those days,” she says. ”The councillors were bought off with bribes and prostitutes. Unfortunately they are all dead and cannot be held accountable.”…. Exploding clouds of radioactive steam and debris were swept by strong winds across a broad arch of countryside, including Iitate and Minamisoma. Mountain forests, streams, rice fields, school grounds and houses were contaminated. This week officials revealed that twice as much radiation had escaped as previously thought. ..A long wait for solace in a ravaged land