Unrecoverable Disaster

Who is responsible for land pollution? It is polluter’s responsibility. Who is the polluter of Fukushima area by disseminated radiation from the First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (1F)? Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Does TEPCO recover the area for the residents to live there again? With the help of the government of Japan, yes, they do. Is it possible for human being to clean all the land up? Nobody knows. That is the problem.

The government of Japan calls the process of cleaning the land “the first attempt in the history of human being.” The government urged each local government to establish a cleaning plan, and some local government has started washing their land. According to the guideline of the Ministry of Environment, the cleaning will be done around houses, schools and some other public buildings in FY 2012 and 2013.

Most part of the land in those rural towns and villages, however, consists of mountain, forest or paddy field. When are those places cleaned? Nobody knows, because the Ministry has no plan after FY 2014. If they clean all the area up, the cost for it will amount to astronomically high. Fiscal need is the main reason for them not to be able to have the plan.

Nevertheless, they insist on retuning displaced people to their hometown. They groundlessly insist on land cleaning. The reason is clear. If they give it up, it means that the accident in 1F was unrecoverable. They have to give in to the criticisms that the government of Japan is responsible for their energy planning heavily dependent on nuclear power. It will harm their dignity and authority as the top elites in Japan. All they want to do is to protect themselves, not sufferers, by devaluing the accident to the level that the accident was still manageable for human being.

No resident in Fukushima believes in the recovery scenario made by government people. Before the accident, they had been aware of thyroidal disease of workers in 1F. They had been aware of what would happen, if a nuclear disaster occurred. They also know how deep the mountains and forests are, and how small their residential area is. It is common knowledge that it takes thirty years for cesium 137 to be reduced in half. Even how they clean the land around their houses, rains and winds transport radioactive materials to their place. It is impossible for them to imagine their land all cleaned up, and living with old neighbors in their hometown.

The responsibility of the government is clear. It is to show a plan with when and how the people will be able to return. Otherwise, the government must not escape from announcing that some people have to eternally give their hometown up, and compensating for them as a result of failure in national energy policy.