Japan-Half Life Of Fear

JAPAN

The Half-Life of Fear

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach wants to reassure athletes that radiation won’t taint their food when they compete in the Summer Games in Tokyo next year.

Bach’s recent comments at the United Nations came after South Korean officials announced they would expand inspections of Japanese food products that began in 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, reported Japanese news agencies.

The news was one example of the lingering effects of the meltdown, which was triggered by an earthquake and a massive tsunami that killed thousands.

Another is liability. Or rather, who should be held to account for the nuclear accident, which forced 160,000 people to evacuate their homes in northeastern Japan and rendered the coastal area around the plant uninhabitable, the New York Times wrote.

A Japanese court recently acquitted three former executives of the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) that operated the plant, triggering protests. “It would be impossible to operate a nuclear plant if operators are obliged to predict every possibility about a tsunami and take necessary measures,” one of the judges concluded.

TEPCO is still liable for civil penalties – earlier this year a court awarded $39 million in damages to some evacuees – and it must still clean up the plant, a process that could take 40 years.

Many Japanese citizens weren’t pleased. CNN noted that prosecutors only charged the three men after relatives of those who perished in the aftermath of the disaster launched a public campaign for justice. “How can the court make this ruling?” said a protester after the verdict in a video in the Daily Mirror, a British tabloid. “We cannot understand and cannot accept it.”

Meanwhile, the Japanese government isn’t helping calm the people’s fears. Former environmental minister Yoshiaki Harada recently suggested that TEPCO should pour radioactive water from Fukushima into the Pacific Ocean, reported Popular Mechanics. The company has more than 1,000 tanks containing more than 1 million tons of contaminated water generated at the site. Workers are simply running out of room to store the irradiated liquid. The site produces around 350 tons of contaminated water every day.

“The only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute it,” said Harada at a recent press conference. “The whole of the government will discuss this, but I would like to offer my simple opinion.”

Local fishermen told the Guardian they are scared. The disaster nearly crippled their industry. Officials conduct stringent testing of seafood harvested in the region to ensure its safety, but polls indicate that many customers understandably would think twice about eating sushi from the waters around the plant.

Like the isotopes floating in the sea, fear doesn’t dissipate quickly – or easily.