Taking Bearings

[Author’s note: In April 2013, along with a half-dozen other journalists and writers from around the world, I was allowed access to photograph inside the media-restricted Fukushima exclusion zone. As a form of protest, a local official (identified and described below) unlocked gates to the contaminated zone then off limits. Accompanied by a translator, I was then allowed to take photos of the instrumentation used to monitor radiation levels, contaminated soil removal facilities, and other sites. I was in the zone for two hours, — a time calculated to offer a reasonably safe level of radiation exposure.  — K. Lee Lerner]

NAGADORO, Japan — Following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) initially reported the safe scram — execution of a nuclear plant’s emergency reactor shutdown plan — of Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi plant located about 150 miles north of Tokyo.

A field inside the Fukushima nuclear accident exclusion zone becomes a storage area for radioactively contaminated soil. There are currently no plans to replace contaminated soils. ©LMG Photo by K. Lee Lerner. All Rights Reserved.

K. Lee Lerner examines damage and recovery efforts inside the Fukushima Nuclear Exclusion Zone. April 2013.

Unless cooling systems continue to function, however, post-shutdown reactors can still reach temperatures that create meltdowns, a destructive melting of the core and associated housing, control, and safety systems. While experts continue to debate the sequence of failures and missteps leading to disaster, the evidence released thus far makes it clear that multiple reactors at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima plant, experienced some degree of meltdown.

The IAEA characterizes the accident at the Fukushima plant as the most severe nuclear crisis since the deadly 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine (then a part of the Soviet Union).

Explosions in outer containment vessels and other leaks released radioactive stream that created radioactive dust that settled on the region around the plant. Mandatory evacuations, issued in stages as the crisis developed, displaced tens of thousands of people.

The size of the exclusion zone — initially 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) in diameter around the stricken plant — expanded as radiation levels soared.

Leaks continue, along with power failures and additional leaks of radioactive seawater used in desperate attempts to cool the reactors, continuing to raise concerns among engineers and officials that the people displaced by the earthquake and-tsunami-induced nuclear accident may not soon be able to return to their homes.

Hisashi Shoji drives a taxi in areas just outside the Fukushima exclusion zone. About two months after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, radiation leaks from the damaged nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant forced Shoji and his wife to evacuate to an apartment in Fukushima city.

Shoji isn’t allowed to live in his home located about 40km from the power plant in the least restricted exclusion zone. Shoji is, however, allowed to drive into the zone for short visits to his house and gardens.

Since issuing mandatory evacuation orders, the Japanese government has covered Shoji’s rent. While Shoji says he appreciates the support, he wonders when the long-promised and delayed decontamination of his hometown will start. Shoji said he worries whether the cleanup will ever be compete so that he can move home again and tend to his garden every day.

Speaking in his native Japanese through an interpreter, Shoji says he stopped believing media reports long ago, and that he distrusts local media as much as the national press.

“They are all pretty much the same. It’s hard to trust anything in the media,” said Shoji in Japanese spoken with a heavy regional accent. “They don’t report the truth.”

As fears grew during the crisis, residents sought shelter farther from the leaking nuclear plant. Shoji said that by the time the government issued official evacuation orders, an exodus was already underway. In some cases, individual members within families evacuated at different times and so now many families are split, living apart in separate temporary residences.

There are, however, efforts to keep families and communities together virtually. in some areas residents were issued ipad-like tablets that allow access to a community home page offering updates on recovery and reclamation processes. When he misses home, Shoji watches a live feed from camera stationed in his village.

Shoji’s distrust of the media reports was echoed by Yoshitomo Shigihara, a kuchou, akin to a county commissioner over the Nagadoro ward within the exclusion zone.

“This area has been forgotten,” said Shigihara as a small group of journalists gathered at a locked perimeter gate barring entrance to a more contaminated “off limits” portion of the exclusion zone.

As expected, the journey into the exclusion zone was a eerie experience. The area has great natural beauty, flowers blow in soft breezes and blue-tinged fog hangs over the valleys. Without people, however, the hallmarks of civilization take on a decaying starkness. Without people they are like tottering gravestones.

Horses graze in semi-isolation in a field within the outermost exclusion zone., where caretakers are allowed access for minimal amounts of time.

Barns for dairy cows stand empty inside the Fukushima exclusion zone, an area previously known for producing high-quality beef and dairy products.

Defying exclusion orders, Shigihara vowed that he will use his key to the gate blocking the exclusion zone perimeter to allow journalists and scientists two hours of exploration and investigation inside the exclusion zone. Shigihara said his defiance of exclusion orders is aimed at renewing media interest in the fate of Nagadoro.

“I have independent assurances that two hours is safe exposure,” said Shigihara.

At a press conference inside a home within the restricted exclusion zone, Shigihara said he thinks much of his ward will unlivable for at least another five years. More disturbing to Shigihara is the prospect that when clean up efforts in the outer zone allow former residents to return, a vast majority will resist.

Backing his fears is data Shigihara cites from questionnaires completed by evacuees. “Ninety-five percent of younger people may decline to come back,” said Shigihara.

The questionnaires also show that even when older residents are committed to returning to their homes and fields inside the exclusion zone, they want their children to live elsewhere.

The extent of radiation poisoning remains a contentious issue.

Shigihara took us on a walking tour of the deserted village.

Inside the gated restricted zone, a radiation measuring station sat in a protected cage. Soil scraped from fields and rice paddies was piled in sealed and covered containers.

Shigihara claims that media blindly reports radiation readings and other data provided by TEPCO engineers. Shigihara contends that media consistently underreport radiation levels Shigihara measures on his brief trips inside the exclusion zone. Moreover, Shigihara says reports differ wildly depending on the Ministry reporting .

“I just want media to report the truth whether it’s good or bad. The problem is, they are vague about the information they give out,” Shigihara said. ‘The media is dependent on TEPCO, unable to verify the technical data.”

A cemetery within the Fukushima exclusion zone sat untended. Shigihara pointed at the cemetery, and said that while most older Nagadoro residents value their roots and the fact that their ancestors’ bones and ashes lie nearby, many fear the younger population will never return to Nagadoro, even after given the environmental all-clear to do so.

Shigihara cites fears of radiation, both real and imagined. For younger people, Shigihara says the contamination offers the perfect excuse to move away to Tokyo and other cities.

Regardless the danger levels, the accident will serve as either an agent or catalyst for change.

“The younger generation didn’t want to stay and do agriculture in the first place,” Shigihara said. “People realized it’s more convenient in the city and they don’t think they can make a living in Nagadoro.”

“The media never reports people saying, ‘I want to go back’,” Shigihara said. “But older people need to come back”

Fukushima Nuclear Exclusion Zone. April, 2013. ©LMG Photo by K. Lee Lerner. All Rights Reserved.

Additional text and photos are available at https://www.academia.edu/31487691/_Fukushima_–Inside_the_Nuclear_Disaster_Exclusion_Zone

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2013. Lee Lerner. Inside the Fukushima Nuclear Exclusion Zone. April, 2013. ©2013 LernerMedia Global (LMG) Photo by Hitoshi Koreeda 是枝仁. All Rights Reserved. Lee Lerner’s portfolio covering science and global issues includes multiple RUSA Book and Media Awards, books named Outstanding Academic Titles, and two global circumnavigations. He serves as an advisor, editor, and contributor to respected international news and academic resources.

Photo Credits:  Fukushima Exclusion Zone. April 2013. All photos by K Lee Lerner ©LMG All rights reserved.

Additional information and selected writings are available at scholar.harvard.edu/kleelerner and via harvard.academia.edu/kleelerner