Parents from Fukushima protest upper limit for children’s exposure to radiation
Parents from Fukushima Prefecture called on the government to withdraw its decision to allow their children to be exposed to up to 20 millisieverts of radiation per year, saying children are more vulnerable to radioactivity.
About 650 parents and other people from areas around the troubled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant visited the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology on May 23, submitting a petition requesting the ministry retract its decision to restrict school outdoor activities only in areas where the annual radiation dose exceeds 20 millisieverts.
“Can the government guarantee the safety of our children?” one parent protested. “Children are more susceptible than adults,” another said.
The protest continued for about two hours in light rain.
A woman from the city of Fukushima said, “It’s difficult for each school to decide whether to restrict outdoor activities. So, I want the ministry to withdraw the standard.”
However, Itaru Watanabe, the senior deputy director-general of the ministry’s Science and Technology Policy Bureau, reiterated that the ministry has no intention to scrap its upper limit on children’s exposure to radiation, saying, “We will try to gradually lower the permissible amount of radiation to 1 millisievert per year.”
The ministry introduced the children’s annual radiation exposure limit of 20 millisieverts in accordance with the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP)’s recommendation that the exposure limit be tentatively raised to 1 to 20 millisieverts per year until the nuclear crisis has settled down.
However, the move met with strong opposition from University of Tokyo Professor Toshiso Kosako, who resigned as a nuclear advisor to Prime Minister Naoto Kan in protest against the government’s decision to allow both children and adults to be exposed to the same amount of radiation.
Mainichi , May 24, 2011
* http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110524p2a00m0na007000c.html
Concerned parents in Fukushima snap up free radiation dosimeters for children
FUKUSHIMA — A swarm of worrisome parents snapped up free radiation dosimeters here out of concerns that the ongoing nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant may pose a threat to their children’s health.
The common sight of children playing outside is nowhere to be found in residential quarters of the city of Fukushima, where relatively high doses of radiation have been detected since the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Even on hot days, some children commute to school wearing long sleeves and gloves to protect themselves against radiation.
When a citizens’ group called “Kodomo tachi o hoshano kara mamoru Fukushima network” (Fukushima network to protect children from radioactivity) started lending radiation dosimeters to local residents for free on May 15, it was flooded with so many requests that they had to stop taking calls after only two hours. With expert opinion divided over the effects of radiation on human health, many parents and children have been dragged into an infinite nerve war.
“Our kids and other children do not play outside. We no longer see children on the streets in our neighborhood,” said a 38-year-old mother of an 11-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy from the eastern part of the city of Fukushima.
On May 19, when the temperature hit this year’s high of 30.3 degrees Celsius, elementary school students on their way home from school had their caps pulled low with masks covering their mouths. If children are seen walking outside without masks there is a tendency for their parents to be labeled irresponsible. Some children are even putting on long-sleeve sweaters and long trousers with gloves on their hands.
When asked if she was scared of radioactivity, the 11-year-old girl replied, “No, I’m not scared. I want to play outside.”
The mother, who had borrowed the dosimeter, measured radiation inside her house, in the garden and on a farm across the road on May 19. The gauge indicated 3.9 microsieverts per hour when she held it over a potted plant near the entrance of her home. “It was 2.4 microsieverts per hour five days ago. I wonder if the figure would decline if I washed the pot with water. I don’t even know how to decontaminate it,” she said at a loss.
Her 71-year-old mother, who is living with the family, has been growing eggplants on the family vegetable patch, but this year the family decided to leave everything on the patch untouched because the radiation doses have been high. “I lost what I’ve been living for,” the 71-year-old lamented.
A 50-year-old woman from the Toyano district of the city of Fukushima, who has also measured radiation with a dosimeter several times, said: “Nothing has changed in the landscape here before and after the nuclear accident, but our lives have changed completely.”
She found that the radiation levels in her garden are high and will have the area decontaminated sometime soon. The pulled out weeds and the topsoil scraped away will be packed in a bag and be buried in a corner of her garden.
The 50-year-old woman has dedicated herself to childcare, establishing a nursery with her friends in 2009 where children are encouraged to play outside. There were five to six toddlers aged between 2 and 5 years old at the nursery, who would be taken outside rain or shine. However, as the nuclear crisis prompted people to move out of the prefecture one after another, there is now only one toddler at the nursery.
“I’m worried about what effects taking the child outside would have in the future, but at the same time, the kid will be stressed out if confined inside all the time,” said the woman with tears in her eyes.
A representative of the citizens’ group that provided the dosimeters to the two women says a total of 300 people have already signed up with the group’s mailing list even though the group was formed only after the Fukushima accident in March.
“We’re surprised at the response we’ve received. The nuclear crisis is indeed taking a toll on the parents who cannot evacuate their children even if they want to,” said the representative of the group.
Mainichi , May 24, 2011
* http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110524p2a00m0na021000c.html
Many anxious Fukushima residents undergo radiation screening tests
OYAMA, Fukushima — An increasing number of residents here, feeling insecure about their health and discrimination against them, have taken screening tests for radiation, with a few of them found to have been exposed to levels of radiation higher than the legal limit.
As of May 24, a total of 192,500 people, or one in 10 people in Fukushima Prefecture, had taken screening tests since March 13 when the Fukushima Prefectural Government started the program in the wake of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, which has been crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
There have been no cases of people found to have been exposed to levels of radiation higher than the legal limit since March 29. Many of the Fukushima residents decided to take the tests to receive “official endorsement” because some lodging and medical facilities asked them to prove that they are not contaminated with radiation.
The prefectural government started the screening program free of charge on March 13, using survey meters — portable radiation detection and measurement instruments. If radiation of 100,000 counts per minute (cpm) or higher is detected on a person, the whole body should be washed with water to get rid of the radiation. But since March 29 when the last person, or the 102nd person, went through the decontamination process, no one has had to be decontaminated for nearly two months.
On May 24 at the prefectural welfare office in Oyama, Fukushima Prefecture, Tomomi Sato, 32, underwent the test with her 1-year-old daughter, Himari. They measured less than 200 cpm of radiation each and received documents that said, “Nothing abnormal detected.”
The welfare office says there have been no cases of detecting 1,000 cmp or more of radiation — one hundredth of the legal limit — at least since the beginning of May. “Because I was worried about my daughter’s radiation exposure, we took the tests for the first time. I am relieved now, but I am still worried about the possible effects emerging 10 years or 20 years from now,” Sato said. At all venues where screening is conducted, documents that clarify each individual is not contaminated with radiation are issued in an effort to deal with groundless rumors about radiation contamination.
In late March, there were cases of some evacuation shelters asking refugees to show certificates to prove they were not contaminated with radiation. In April, children from Fukushima were bullied after evacuating to a city outside of Fukushima. There were some cases of hotels refusing to accept people from Fukushima.
“We have started issuing official documents since mid-March because we received requests from many people who said they would need to show the screening documents when they try to do things like taking medial checkups at medical facilities outside Fukushima,” said an official of the welfare office in Minamisoma.
Mainichi , May 25, 2011
* http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110525p2a00m0na015000c.html
TEPCO took 2 months on report
It took more than two months for Tokyo Electric Power Co. to submit its report to the government on its analysis of what occurred in the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled the power station.
Many people have asked why it took so long for TEPCO to submit the report, which reached the agency under the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry just before the deadline late Monday.
The primary reason for the delay was that the reactors were without power, as their switchboards were submerged in water when the powerful tsunami struck. Most of the data TEPCO used to grasp what had happened in the reactors is normally recorded on computers at the reactors’ central control rooms.
But shortly after the tsunami, this recording capacity at the Nos. 1 and 2 reactors was largely disabled. Extremely high radiation levels near the control rooms in the early days of the crisis delayed the utility’s ability to retrieve data that had been recorded.
It was not until earlier this month, when radiation levels declined and rubble was cleared from the area, that TEPCO workers were able to enter the control room to collect the data.
Besides electronic data, paper records were also left inside the control rooms, which TEPCO scanned to add to the electronic records.
To fill in the gaps when there was neither electronic nor paper records, the utility interviewed officials who were at the plant at the time, and looked at job sheets and other notes left on whiteboards in the control rooms.
The International Atomic Energy Agency will convene a high-level ministerial conference on nuclear safety June 20-24 in Vienna, where the government will make a report on the Fukushima disaster. The government had asked the utility to submit its report on Monday, and the utility handed it in at 11:30 p.m.
The Yomiuri Shimbun , May 25, 2011
* http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110524004474.htm
18 no-entry zone holdouts stay put
“If I move my 91-year-old mother, she will die. So we, together with my husband, stay here, possibly to be exposed to radiation and die,” said a 62-year-old woman over the phone.
She is one of 18 people who remain within the no-entry zone, the area within the 20-kilometer radius of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture.
The no-entry zone was set by the government on April 22 on the basis of the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Law. People who enter or stay in the zone can be punished with fines of up to 100,000 yen or be taken into custody.
Although local government officials are attempting to persuade them to leave the area for their own safety, residents are refusing to do so, saying, “We can’t abandon the animals we keep,” or “It’s too dangerous to move our bedridden mother now.”
According to the local governments concerned, out of the nine cities, towns and villages which come under the no-entry zone, there are 18 people in 12 households remaining: six people (five households) in Narahamachi; four people (three households) in Minami-Soma; four people (one household) in Tamura; two people (one household) in Tomiokamachi; and two people (two households) in Kawauchimura.
When these areas were designated as within the no-entry zone by the government in April, there were estimated to be more than 100 people still in the zone.
The 62-year-old woman, who remains in Narahamachi together with her mother and husband, said she would stay there so that she could take care of her bedridden 91-year-old mother.
She said her mother, who used to live near her house, has become extremely weak in her legs and other parts of her body over the past 10 years. After she moved her mother to her house two days after the evacuation instructions were issued, her mother became feverish, so she decided to take care of her mother at her home.
While there is electricity, water must be obtained from a well. As their antenna was broken in the earthquake, they are unable to watch TV, instead getting their news from the radio. They have sealed the ventilation fans with tape and kept the window shutters closed. The family ran out of propane in late March and have been unable to bathe since then.
To those who would come to persuade them into evacuating the area, the woman would say, “Who will accept the responsibility if my mother dies in transit?”
“Taking care of her at this house is to protect her dignity. There are people who are working now at the [crisis-hit] nuclear plant. As an inhabitant of this town, I will see, from here, how the nuclear crisis is handled, and I’ll see the fate of this town until the very end,” she said.
Another man who lives in the same town owns a poultry farm there. The 55-year-old told The Yomiuri Shimbun over the phone, “I cannot abandon my chickens, and I have no plans to leave anytime soon.”
The man, who once worked as the head of a group to support handicapped people in Saitama Prefecture, moved into Narahamachi 10 years ago, looking for a life in the country.
Besides chickens, he has raised such animals as goats, rabbits and geese. Since the evacuation instructions were issued last month, Self-Defense Forces officials and policemen tried to persuade him to leave the area to no avail.
He said his chickens and other animals have lost weight and died one after another.
“When I learned from the TV news that my farm was within the designated no-entry zone, I thought I was sentenced to die. As I came to like this area very much, I started living with my animals. If I were to abandon them, I might as well be dead,” the man said.
A town hall official said: “We have made a report to the central government that there are some residents remaining. But we haven’t received any instructions.”
“As residents have their personal reasons [for staying], we have no intention of asking the police to impose fines on them,” he said. However, officials of the town hall have been doing their best to persuade them to move out of the town.
Sanai Yamauchi, 61, a member of the Narahamachi town assembly, is one such official. On Saturday, he, together with the head of the town assembly, visited five households in the town.
As it has been difficult to procure food in the neighborhood, they distributed instant noodles and bottles of drinking water provided by the town.
“Some households have shown signs of relenting, but the task of persuading them is indeed tough. All we can do is persistently encourage them to move out,” Yamauchi said, adding that they will continue to visit the area to persuade them in the days ahead.
Keiji Ohara / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer, May 24, 2011
* http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110523005018.htm
Projections halted
The Meteorological Agency has stopped providing projections of the spread of radioactive substances from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant now that the International Atomic Energy Agency is no longer requesting them, agency officials said Wednesday.
The IAEA had asked for the projections to gauge the potential impact on other countries of radiation leaking from the nuclear plant following the megaquake and tsunami.
The projections were made up to three times a day immediately after the crisis erupted and, recently, three times a week in reports to the IAEA.
The Meteorological Agency had made the projections available on its website since April 5 as instructed by the government.
The IAEA terminated the request Monday night without specifying why and noted it could make a new request if there were any developments to warrant it, Japanese officials said.
However, the agency will not give projections unless the U.N. nuclear watchdog asks them to, the officials said.
The projection had been based on an assumption that 1 becquerel of iodine-131 is discharged from the nuclear plant every 72 hours. Projected concentration data did not reflect reality.
Kyodo, May 26, 2011
* http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110526a1.html
Fukushima to Conduct Radiation Checks on 150,000 Residents for 30 Years
Fukushima, May 26 (Jiji Press)—The prefectural government of Fukushima, northeastern Japan, plans to conduct follow-up radiation checks over the next 30 years on some 150,000 residents near the crippled nuclear power plant, officials said Thursday.
The prefectural government is set to establish a committee Friday to discuss details, including how to conduct the checkups.
The move come as residents are concerned about the influence on their health from low-level radiation exposure over a long period of time, the officials said.
The committee is set to have eight members, expected to be led by Shunichi Yamashita, professor at Nagasaki University, who is serving as an adviser to the Fukushima prefectural government on radiation health risks.
Fukushima Medical University will conduct the checkups starting in July, the officials said.
Jiji Press, May 26, 2011
http://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&k=2011052700049