Interview with Miyamoto Shizue, member of Fukushima Prefectural Assembly: — Stagnant Decontamination and Debris Removal — Genuine rehabilitation of Fukushima is yet to start

In Fukushima Prefecture, due to the radiation contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident, extensive areas are still left virtually untouched. Little has been done in the rehabilitation work and lifeline utilities are still suspended, let alone clearing away of rubbles. Prefectural Assembly member Miyamoto Shizue, former Min-Iren member, tells us about the real situation on the ground.

On May 11, I visited Odaka District of Minami-Soma City. The area had been designated as a “Caution zone”(1) after the nuclear plant accident, but recently it was lifted. I was surprised at what I saw, as the scene was virtually the same as the one I witnessed immediately after the earthquake more than a year ago. It was as if the time has stopped since then. Flattened and slanted houses were found everywhere.
There was a house whose roof tiles fell by the earthquake. The household members put blue tarpaulin to cover the roof before evacuation. When they came back home after the caution zone designation was lifted, they found the tarpaulin blown away and the whole house flooded.
Restoration of lifeline utilities is urgently needed. Electricity has been back, but not gas or water/sewage. You cannot flush the toilet, or do the laundry. Mayor said it would take another half a year to restore the water service.
In cleaning the house, you can only put aside and keep the debris in your garden, as the garbage collection service by the city has not been restarted. Although the government designated most of Odaka District as a “Zone to prepare for lifting compulsory evacuation”(2), people wonder, “How can you prepare for coming home in such a situation?”
The “caution zone” designation was lifted only for a small part of Minami-Soma City and other areas. Without finally bringing the accident under control, no genuine rehabilitation is possible. But even after that, can we really retrieve our Fukushima, where people can live safely and at peace? This is a big question facing us.

High-level radioactive substances accumulated in street gutters
Even in not off-limits areas, debris clearance and decontamination works are not sufficiently underway. The debris collected by local governments are treated as radioactive wastes. The radiation level of most of such debris is below the government standard (8000 Bq(3)/kg) and therefore can be disposed by general industrial waste disposal contractors. But no contractors would dare to undertake the job.
Decontamination is not sufficient. At schools, they wash down buildings and roofs with high-pressure water and strip the topsoil of school grounds and bury it in the same schoolyard. The dose of radiation in the air would go down to 1/3 to 1/5 through such a method.
However, this method requires fairly big space. The method of decontamination of individual houses is basically the same, but there are many families who cannot bury the stripped topsoil in their own yard. Inside Fukushima City, too, we can find many houses where they leave the stripped topsoil in their back yard, put a vinyl sheet to cover it and place sandbags over the heaps. This is because the space for storage of radioactive substances has not yet been set, and people have no choice but leave them in their back yards.
In gutters on the streets where children pass to go to schools, you can also detect the accumulation of radioactive substances. However, as roads are not private properties and there is no provisional storage fixed for sludge taken from these gutters, their decontamination is not in progress.

Involvement of local people in decision-making is the key
In order to promote decontamination, securing provisional storages for radioactive substances is urgently required. But even after one year since the disaster, very few places have been secured in the whole of the prefecture.
In Fukushima City, there was an attempt to set up several large-scale provisional sites to store radioactive wastes, but so far only one place has been fixed. The objection of local people to contaminated substances from outside their communities is inevitable.
In Nihonmatsu City, discussion is held among the residents of each neighborhood association on where such provisional places should be. Naturally no one wants to see the accumulation of radioactive substances right next to them, but driven by necessity, they discuss and make decisions on 110 places. This is a good example to show that people’s involvement is the key to promote decontamination efforts, not imposition from above.

For promotion of Fukushima’s rehabilitation
The prefectural government of Fukushima set forth a “prefectural administration no dependent on nuclear power generation”, and “free-of-charge medical care for 18 years olds and younger”. But on the other hand, its response to people’s concerns over their health is not sufficient. Right now the prefecture is carrying out thyroid check-ups on children under 18. It declared to aim at a prefecture of longevity. But a Fukushima Prefecture where people can live at peace is possible only when the prefecture provides health check-ups free of charge, broadens the scope of coverage for check-ups, and takes measures to follow up the illnesses found in these check-ups.
The governor of Fukushima has not yet acknowledged that the nuclear power plant accident was a man-made disaster. The inadequacy of official countermeasures after the nuclear accident is a reflection of the fact that the prefectural governor has not firmly taken a position to squarely face the damage from the disaster.
Radioactive substances have already dispersed all over the country. In other words, all the people in Japan have become victims. We are all facing the question whether or not Japan should continue the policy of relying on nuclear power generation.
I hope that all the people in Japan will continue to remember both the people who remain in Fukushima and those who have evacuated outside the prefecture. In addition to joining the volunteer corps for decontamination work or supporting the victims by providing logistic support and health consultations, please help develop the struggle to stop the restart of nuclear power plants. This is the only way to urge the national and local governments and electric power companies to commit themselves to break away from nuclear power generation, which in turn will promote the rehabilitation of Fukushima.

(1) Except those engaged in meeting emergencies situations, off-limits to general public.
(2) People can come in and go, but are not allowed to spend nights there.
(3) Unit to show the intensity of radioactivity.