Fukushima Means Radiation
In spite of the nuclear industry’s lobbyists’ best efforts to ignore or downplay the extent and severity of contamination in Japan — caused by three reactor meltdowns and a waste fuel pool fire at Fukushima in Japan — the city, prefecture and reactor complex that share the name will forever be identified with radiation.
As reports from foreign news services and Japanese daily papers make clear — most U.S. papers and networks have sent their correspondents away — news hounds can expect only sobering reminders that the destroyed 6-reactor complex at Fukushima-Daiichi is still dangerously unstable, the consequences of eating contaminated foods — from baby formula, to rice, to fish — are ominous, and the widely dispersed radioactive poisons are only just now beginning to be dealt with.
A selective survey of the last few months’ news provides a glimpse of what the Japanese are up against.
Major Aftershocks Still Shaking NE Japan / Reactors Declared
Directly Atop Earthquake Fault
On Dec. 7 and again Feb. 2, major earthquakes off the northeast coast of Japan sent waves of fear across the same region that was hit by the record 9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake nearly two years ago, in March 2011. The Dec. 7 quake, 7.3 on the Richter scale, was the most powerful aftershock since the 2011 disaster. It created a 3-foot tsunami in parts of the northeast coast, shook buildings in Tokyo (550 miles away) for several minutes, and temporarily forced the evacuation of 26,000 people. Bloomberg news reported that Fukushima workers were ordered to seek refuge in quake-proof buildings at the Daiichi and Daini reactor complexes. The 6-reactor Daiichi site was the one wrecked in 2011. The 6.9 magnitude Feb. 2 quake did not cause a tsunami, but did shake buildings all across Hokkaido Island, Japan’s second largest. Another heavy quake, magnitude 6.4, struck the same region last July 29.
In a related event, a panel of experts concluded on Dec. 10 that Unit 2 of the Tsuruga reactor complex in western Japan (200 miles west of Tokyo), is probably sitting directly above an active earthquake fault. The finding could force the very first reactor shut down over precautionary concerns. If a new federal regulatory commission determines that the fault is active, the reactor won’t be allowed to restart and may have to be decommissioned. Owners at the Japan Atomic Power Co. said in a statement that the panel’s conclusion was “totally unacceptable.” But Fumiya Tanabe, a former chief research scientist at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, said persistent danger still plagues the Fukushima reactors. Tanabe told Asahi Shimbun Dec. 18, “Despite the (officially declared) cold shutdowns… there is a risk of unforeseen circumstances arising if another major earthquake hits.”
Fish, Tobacco Found Contaminated
Just as scientists have predicted, fish are concentrating the cesium-137 that was dumped into the Sea of Japan by Fukushima’s triple meltdowns. Thousands of tons of cesium-contaminated water have contaminated the Sea of Japan and the Pacific because of leaks from earthquake-smashed reactor parts, meltdown-damaged reactor core vessels, and the dumping or leaking of millions of gallons of water used to cool melted reactor fuel and pools full of high-level waste fuel.
On Jan. 21, murasoi fish caught in the area near Fukushima were found to contain 254,000 Becquerels per kilogram of cesium — more than 2,540 times the recently invented limit of 100 becquerels/kg set for seafood set by Japan’s government. (A Becquerel is a unit of radioactivity used in the international monitoring of radiation.) An article Science magazine in August by Ken Buesseler said that levels of cesium in seafood in near Fukushima had not decreased since 2011.
“[T]he Fukushima disaster is still very much a work in progress,” said Nils Bøhmer, nuclear physicist with Bellona, the international environmental group based in Norway. “It is not at all surprising that we are turning up some of the more shocking evidence of the effect of radiation on various ecosystems two years later,” he said. Bellona noted that irradiated marine life is turning up on far-off coastlines along the Pacific Rim. Russia’s English language television station RT reported concern over fish caught last summer off its coast near Japan and in May, a tuna contaminated with cesium was caught near the California coast.
The Japan Times and India’s financial journal Daily News & Analysis reported in October that Japan Tobacco, Inc. had to cancel the purchase of 4.5 tons of leaves harvested in Fukushima Prefecture that it found contaminated with cesium-137 — above the “allowed” limit of 100 Becquerels per kilo.
“Huge” Leaks Still
Contaminating Sea
of Japan, Owners Can’t Locate Source
After denying in August that its radiation leaks were ongoing, Tokyo Elec. Power Co. (Tepco) admitted in October 2012 that massive leaks from its Fukushima-Daiichi site had not yet stopped. On Dec. 12, according to Japan’s daily Asahi Shimbun, the company confessed that it had not yet found the source of the leak of highly radioactive water. The paper said, “Tepco suspects the radioactive water is leaking from fractures …. A huge volume of highly radioactive water, used to cool down the fuel, has since been leaking from the reactor, TEPCO said.”
Sailors Sue over
Contamination Symptoms
The San Diego Union Tribune reported Jan. 12 that eight sailors have filed a lawsuit against Tepco, alleging that its officials lied about the amount of radiation spewed from Fukushima’s three destroyed reactors. A ninth plaintiff in the suit is the 1-year-old daughter of a female sailor who didn’t know she was pregnant at the time. The lawsuit says the Navy used Tepco’s reports in its own calculations about the radiation risk to U.S. sailors who were involved in the earthquake relief effort. The sailors describe rectal bleeding and other gastrointestinal trouble, unremitting headaches, hair loss and fatigue. Their lawyer says some have thyroid and gallbladder cancer. All are in their 20s.” the paper said. The sailors are seeking $10 million in personal damages and a $30 million punitive judgment against Tepco.
— John LaForge works for Nukewatch a nuclear watchdog group in Wisconsin.
