One year later, grave dangers persist

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O hit by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake at a subduc­ n March 11 last year, Honshu Island of Japan was tion zone, followed by a horrendous tsunami that knocked out the emergency diesel generators and cooling pumps at the Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear power station. The natural disaster resulted in a tri­ ple meltdown, two hydrogen explosions, and exposed spent fuel rods in at least one of the cooling pools. Massive amounts of radiation were vented into the atmosphere and discharged into the ocean, making it 10 times worse than the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe in the Soviet Union.

The entire northern island of Japan was thoroughly irradiated, along with North America as the plume wafted across the Northern Pacific. For weeks after­ ward, the Japanese people and the rest of the world stood by in trepidation as their government and TEPCO, the utility that owns the complex, struggled ineptly to get the situation under control. That has yet to happen since the facility is still leaking radiation into the environment, putting millions at extreme risk for prolonged exposure.

On the anniversary of the cataclysm, anti-nuclear actions occurred in Japan and around the globe, de­ manding an end to the nuclear nightmare.

The residents of Fukushima Province live in con­ stant fear for their health, as do the 35 million living in Greater Tokyo, because neither the industry nor gov­ ernment have been forthcoming about the amounts of radiation to which they are being exposed. Their air, soil, water, and food are contaminated with dan­ gerously high levels of radionuclides such as iodine, cesium, strontium, and plutonium.

In other words, the area is completely uninhabitable and should be abandoned, but to tell the truth would be to admit that there’s trouble in Nuclear Paradise, so the subterfuge continues. Everyone is living under great stress and anxiety about their health and that of their children. More than half the population of tradi­ tionally conformist Japan no longer trusts the corrupt government. Many have taken to self-monitoring with equipment donated by other countries.

The authorities have basically abandoned the people of Fukushima. Tsunami debris is still piled in heaps. In desperation, many have taken to scraping off the radioactive topsoil from their yards themselves and dumping it in parks, woodlands, and streams.

Liability for reactor operators is only a small frac­ tion of the actual damages. Those who were among 6 SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 2012 the 150,000 evacuated have lost everything—homes, possessions, livelihood, and communities—yet they have been denied adequate compensation (a mere $13,045) to start over and rebuild their lives. Those who left voluntarily have received far less—a one-time payment of $1043.

Therefore, TEPCO has largely managed to escape paying for the consequences of its misdeeds. To avoid decontamination costs, its attorneys are claiming that the radiation is now the problem of the landowners, not the company, so the financial burden for whatever remediation measures are taken will be born by tax­ payers—which is always the case with environmental destruction by big corporations.

The health consequences Health consequences will be devastating, with some experts predicting over a million cancers in future. These estimates are based on peer-reviewed epide­ miological studies of the victims of the Three Mile Is­ land and Chernobyl disasters. And before the cancers appear, other medical problems will show up.

After massive radiation releases, the initial health impacts appear in the reproductive and developmen­ tal stages with decreased fertility, fetal viability, and increased metabolic defects that will become genera­ tional. For example, infant mortality (measured from birth to one year) in eight Pacific Northwest cities spiked 35% after the Fukushima plume reached our West Coast, according to toxicologist Janette Sherman and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano.

It is the young who are most vulnerable because of their rapid cell division and growth. Radioactive ce­ sium is absorbed in the muscles, acting as potassium does in cellular metabolism. As a result, children near Chernobyl suffer from mal-formed hearts. Due to ex­ posure to Iodine 131, one-third of Fukushima children tested already have lumps in their thyroids. Many par­ ents are still waiting to have their kids tested.

Last year, the Japanese government cynically raised the acceptable level of radiation exposure to 20 mil­ liSieverts (mSV) per year (in U.S. measurements, 2 REM) for all members of the population regardless of gender or age, claiming it was safe. This amounts to a one in 500 risk of cancer for the general population. Everyone will receive these high doses for every year they are in the radiation zone. Consequently, the ef­ fects are cumulative. However, children and women, compared to adult males, are at the highest risk. The cancer risk for young girls is five times as much as adult males, and one in 100 will get cancer.

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