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Gov't lifts evacuation order for Fukushima town near nuclear plant

19 Comments
By Mari Yamaguchi

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19 Comments
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The government says its decontamination work in the town was completed in March.

In other words "we removed some topsoil and hosed down the houses." Yeah that will surely decontaminate the town Sarcasm Off

Parliament should move there, raise their kids there, with Fukushima Daiichi still leaking toxic Goo

7 ( +9 / -2 )

I wouldn't be able to go back hometown if there're not any doctors.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Big Mistake!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Residents are given personal dosimeters to check their own check radiation levels.

Yikes, that's friggin' scary. Reminds me of Harrison Ford's K-19 (widow maker) movie.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Everyone should send Parliament an email or fill out an inquiry form and tell them your opinion. I may post a comment here but I also give my opinions to a minister at Parliament. Lifting this evacuation order is akin to genocide with Fukushima Daiichi not being contained.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Residents are given personal dosimeters to check their own check radiation levels

the town is also running 24-hour monitoring at a water filtration plant, testing tap water for radioactive materials

You cannot check food, water and intake contamination with regular dosimeters, let me guess the town is going to wave a radiation scintillation counter pointing up the sky or worse a Geiger counter over the water pipe. As always, only govt, town local govt, involved corporate, central govt owned companies (TEPCO) , JAIF , NISA, etc... are going to check and release the data (of course because you need very expensive equipment to really check contamination and identify the isotopes by doing spectrum analysis). Having 1 source of real information is the problem, a little like having only NASA telling you what is looks like up there in space.

If you believe your govt blindly for your own safety then relocate there at all means and support he local economy otherwise use your common sense and run away.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

So now the residents will have to choose between risking their lives (either from radiation, from lack of infrastructure and services, no jobs in the area, etc.) and getting no benefits from the government and TEPCO after a year or so, or just getting none of the aforementioned and having to relocate at their own expense. Make no mistake, this is about saving on compensation money and that is all.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Speechless

Not even a cement and lead wall or dome built between the town of Naraha and the rad zone?

http://netc.com/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/11627983/Fukushima-leak-could-cause-hydrogen-explosion-at-nuclear-plant.html

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Good news! Hope the families can start to get their lives back to normal.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

this is about saving on compensation money and that is all.

Yes, they need that money back to buy the fishermen's acquiescence so they can release their nuclear waste in the near-by ocean, tainted water full of radioactive tritium since their ALPS system cannot filter this isotope, btw wondering how they can reach the legal limit since a becquerel is a becquerel and tritium must account a lot, hummm...let me guess, by keeping adding fresh sea water until the level is below the legal limit and then dump everything, that is the magic trick.

Tepco has said the level of tritium in the water is between 1 million and 5 million becquerels per liter. The legal limit for release to the sea is 60,000 becquerels.

You see, they can dump any level of contamination in the ocean, they just need to add 41x liters of fresh sea water to their nuclear waste before dumping it there is no limit, still at the end , they will dump their 1 to 5 millions becquerels per liter to the ocean.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/31/national/former-u-s-nuclear-chief-says-tritium-water-at-fukushima-no-1-can-safely-be-dumped-in-sea/#.Veq25hGqpBc

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The big question everyone wants to ask is "If I move back in, will I have a higher chance of getting cancer in the long run regardless of whatever the legal dosage it may be?" Please tell the people the answer before they move back so at least we know they're safe.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

this is about saving on compensation money and that is all.

Exactly. First, I thought "In the place of these people, I'd have got a new house and life elsewhere for several years already. They are crazy to go back....". Then I rememberer that they only got a few cheap hand outs from governement to survive and they've paid with their own saving, and low incomes to just survive in poverty. Authorities did not build them new houses, did not give them even a part of the sum needed to rebuild, did not give them loans. Nanimo nai. So middle-aged and elderly's only hope to live 'normal' lives again is to go back in the houses they own.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The big question everyone wants to ask is "If I move back in, will I have a higher chance of getting cancer in the long >run regardless of whatever the legal dosage it may be?"

Along with other national and international regulatory agencies responsible for radiation protection, the NRC assumes that any exposure to radiation poses some health risk, and that risk increases as exposure increases in a linear, no-threshold (LNT) manner. The LNT assumption suggests that any increase in dose, no matter how small, incrementally increases risk. Conversely, lower levels of radiation proportionately decrease the risk, such that very small radiation doses have very little risk. The health risks include increased occurrence of cancer and genetic abnormalities in future generations. Since it is assumed that any exposure to radiation poses some health risk, it makes sense to keep radiation doses as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA).

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Citizen2012

How can they keep radiation doses low so close to the un-contained Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Leaking, spewing triple meltdown Nuclear Power Facility. Wind, rain etc. will always bring more contamination to Naraha's populations doorstep everyday all day. Even if Fukushima Daiichi were entombed I would not agree with being in an area exposed to years of accumulated radioisotope contamination.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Utrack, I agree, seems obvious that what is escaping from the plant (or dumped by TEPCO) must be found somewhere, the closer the higher the probability so better to relocate as far as possible from that plant. As for the town, in my opinion, they just cleaned up identified hotspot so the Newton's Inverse Square Law applied intensity will be reduced enough to not register high level at 1 to 2m from the ground (where most people will carry/handle their dosimeter). They cannot avoid food chain contamination and ground water contamination simply because the technology to locate and eradicate radioactive sub-particle in an open environment does not exist, even TEPCO with dedicated expensive hardware equipment cannot determine the exact locations of the molten fuel.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Yeah the fuel is like dust particle by now and it is in the wind.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

EngrHassanASabi: The big question everyone wants to ask is "If I move back in, will I have a higher chance of getting cancer in the long run regardless of whatever the legal dosage it may be?" Please tell the people the answer before they move back so at least we know they're safe.

Any organization authorized to provide that answer is not to be trusted, historically.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Look at for the sign of changes, today the NIRS report is showing some correlation in genetic abnormalities for the fir tree as already outlined by the NRC extract I already posted. Could it be that they are preparing the population for something bigger ? Shame on the ruling power to allow this to happen knowing exactly the increase of risk and please... stop growing food, fishing in that area and get the govt out of TEPCO now, as a tax payer I feel the shame to be accomplice indirectly by financing this company.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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