Revisiting 2011 - Fukushima's Long Shadow

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Related Environmental Issues

Date posted: 03/18/16

Nazuaki Nagata reports that on March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m., a magnitude-9.0 earthquake shook the foundations of the Tohoku region, triggering a massive tsunami and a meltdown (via water loss covering core) at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. In the second part of the Japan Times series, Nagata looks at work being done at the crippled plant, as well as the real and exaggerated effects of radiation in the region. There is always a perception gap between those who look out from and those who look into any given place, Kainuma said during a recent interview with The Japan Times. But I have become convinced that in some cases (this perception gap) has caused false rumors and discrimination. Before beginning his presentations, Kainuma often hands out an audience questionnaire. One key question is ... How much of the Fukushima population do you think fled the prefecture after the nuclear crisis? In most cases, the answers he gets are wrong, he said. The average answer is about 20 to 30%, reflecting a widespread perception of a massive exodus from contaminated areas around the Fukushima power plant. But in reality, only 2.2 percent of the prefecture 1.9 million people were still living outside it. Fukushima population shrank 5.7% between 2010 and 2015. A decline of this size, however, can also be seen in other prefectures, where it is chalked up to a low birth rate and an increase in deaths among the large cohort of elderly people, Kainuma said. Despite this, Kainuma holds that pundits, activists and media outlets outside Fukushima, including foreign journalists, consistently exaggerate certain themes in their coverage ... radiation, evacuation, compensation, decontamination, anxious children and the nuclear industry. Now, a majority of ordinary people (outside Fukushima) have become indifferent to such topics. But others have become isolated and ever more radical, Kainuma said. Such people want to believe unfounded rumors about the threat of radiation, etc.