nuclear-news

Anxiety in city on border of Fukushima’s no-go zone

Japan city on border of nuclear no-go zone fights for survival, By Antoni Slodkowski, Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jonathan Thatcher, MINAMI SOMA, Japan   Sep 11, 2011  (Reuters) – A line dividing the no-go zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant and the area deemed safe from radiation cuts right across this coastal city but the “good” part is starting to look very much like the ghost town on the other side.

Six months after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake unleashed a deadly tsunami that triggered meltdowns and radiation leaks at the Tokyo Electric Power’s complex, Minami Soma, a city just a half an hour’s drive away, struggles to stay alive.

In the part that was meant to carry on as normal, shuttered shops and eateries alongside a stretch of road that leads to a checkpoint at the entrance to the restricted 20-km (12 mile) area shows that it is not enough just to declare it safe.

“People want the government to show crystal clear directions and to come up with a road map, stating finally which areas are inhabitable, which are not and why,” says Tomoyoshi Oikawa, 51, assistant director of Mimami-soma municipal hospital

Now nearly half of its 70,000 residents are gone, including doctors, nurses, teachers and officials needed to run the city’s basic services, and corrosive mistrust of officialdom and sheer challenges of everyday life threaten to drive even more away.

Right after the meltdown of Fukushima reactors the authorities imposed the no-go zone, slicing off part of the city. Later, they advised the elderly and children from the 20-30 kms (12-18 miles) range to move away and the rest to be ready to leave.

Thousands still live in a limbo, gripped by fears of radiation contamination and uncertainty about their future.

“If we, as doctors, don’t explain things properly to our patients, we can be sued. But the government, which has determined the lives of at least 200,000 by its post quake decisions, has failed to explain its steps to us so far,” said Oikawa…..

EXODUS

The long shadow of the Fukushima plant, where engineers still fight every day to stabilize the reactors and limit radioactive contamination has sparked an exodus of young people and families with children. Only around a half of the secondary and primary school students and as little as twenty percent of children of kindergarten age have returned after they were forced to evacuate in days after the explosions…..

few people trust official data.

“We haven’t let them play outside for the last six months,” said Yuka Nagakawa, 27, teacher at an after-school club in Minami Soma located in a building now crowded with students from four other schools from the evacuated areas.

“Many mothers are especially concerned about the internal radiation exposure and they bring their own water bottles to school,” said Nagakawa…..

“If there is a possibility that people’s health could be in danger, the government shouldn’t encourage their comeback,” said Iwao Hoshi, who runs the evacuation center….

September 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, psychology - mental health