Martin Fackler, of the New York Times, reports, that the Japanese Government will formally acknowledge what has already been known to many, who are paying attention, that a Large Zone Near Japanese Reactors to Be Off Limits, for an indefinite period of time, measured in decades.
TOKYO — Broad areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could soon be declared uninhabitable, perhaps for decades, after a government survey found radioactive contamination that far exceeded safe levels, several major media outlets said Monday.
The formal announcement, expected from the government in coming days, would be the first official recognition that the March accident could force the long-term depopulation of communities near the plant, an eventuality that scientists and some officials have been warning about for months. Lawmakers said over the weekend — and major newspapers reported Monday — that Prime Minister Naoto Kan was planning to visit Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is, as early as Saturday to break the news directly to residents. The affected communities are all within 12 miles of the plant, an area that was evacuated immediately after the accident.
I guess those living in the many areas outside of the 12 mile limit that have radiation in the soil above that considered safe will have to wait to hear about their status.
Both the Japanese Government and the TEPCO officials have admitted lying to the public, and withholding data many times.
This report comes just after I reviewed an article reporting that the Department of Justice is investigating BP for apparent failures to accurately disclose the magnitude of the Gulf oil spill, compromising efforts to adequately respond to the initial spill.
DOJ Investigating BP for Faulty Gulf Oil Spill Estimates, Says John Rudolf, which raises the same issues of lack of honestly and accountability by corporations and governments. If they have the rights of people, shouldn't we put them in jail when they engage in criminal behavior?
The government is expected to tell many of these residents that they will not be permitted to return to their homes for an indefinite period. It will also begin drawing up plans for compensating them by, among other things, renting their now uninhabitable land. While it is unclear if the government would specify how long these living restrictions would remain in place, news reports indicated it could be decades. That has been the case for areas around the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine after its 1986 accident.
The Japanese government has been saying that the evacuation would only last until next year, and has been criticized for trying to limit the size of affect areas, which it is still trying to do. Apparently, this latest, small "burst" of honesty only has come about, due to the Ministry of Science and Education releasing a report, that contradicted the government current plans.
which showed even higher than expected radiation levels within the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant. The most heavily contaminated spot was in the town of Okuma about two miles southwest of the plant, where someone living for a year would be exposed to 508.1 millisieverts of radiation — far above the level of 20 millesieverts per year that the government considers safe.
Over 80,000 people have been evacuated, so far, with many critics saying the numbers would be higher if the Japanese Government used the same standards the Ukrainian Government did at Chernobyl.
The repeated lies, and withholding of datat, by Japanese Government and the TEPCO official is disgraceful and has brought much shame to Japan, and public officials everywhere, and damaged the trust citizens can have that corporations and our government will take adequate and responsible measure to protect the public safety.
Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, the world highest "responsible" watchdog, and oversight agency, along with many other government, including our own, knew the Japanese authorities were lying to their people and said nothing.
Many here, including myself, have called for the World Courts to investigate whether such actions constitute "crimes against humanity," and should be prosecuted. If they don't, they should be, and we need strong laws to cover such criminal behavior, that jeapordizing not only public safety, but trust in governments' abiltiy and willingness to protect public safetfy everywhere.
If corporations, and governments can not be trust to act responsibly, and hold themselves accountable, for the public safety, we can not allow them to use such potentially dangerous technologies.
And, if corporations are people, in terms of legal rights and privelages, when are we going to start holding them accountable, and putting them "in jail" when they engage in negligence, and criminal acts?
12:58 PM PT: Coincidentally, I just wrote up John Rudolf's excellent expose on what appears to be lack of disclosure and candor by British Petroleum with regard to the Gulf Oil spill.
How are we going to get society and governments to respond to what is a consistent pattern of behavior revealing a flaw in our current regulatory and accountabiltiy mechanisms?
http://www.dailykos.com/...
DOJ Investigating BP for Faulty Gulf Oil Spill Estimates, Says John Rudolf
1:24 PM PT: The Guardian is now reporting the same story, with more explicit mention that 80,000 Japanese will never return home due to this announcement.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Fukushima disaster: residents may never return to radiation-hit homes
Japanese government will admit for first time that radiation levels will be too high to allow many evacuees to return home
1:28 PM PT: Time Magazine now has an article up an this as well, and says 90,000 people may be affected.
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/...
But Fukushima's struggles are far from over—and it looks like they may last even longer than anyone had expected. Today the Japanese government reported that higher than expected levels of radioactive contamination may keep areas around the Fukushima nuclear plant off-limits for human habitation for years, or even decades. From Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano:
There are areas near the nuclear power plant where the level of radiation is very high and it cannot be denied that there may be areas where it will be difficult for the residents to return for a long time.
I am very sorry for that.
More from TIME: A Long Road to Recovery
The 90,000 residents who live within a 12.4 mile (20 km) radius of the stricken plant—nearly all of whom have been homeless for more than five months—are likely to be a lot sorrier. Government data shows that some areas within the evacuation zone are contaminated with the radiation equivalent of more than 500 millisieverts a year—25 times higher than Tokyo's safety limit for annual exposure. Even if TEPCO can completely halt the leakage of radiation from the plant, those levels mean that thousands of homes may remain too contaminated to live in for years or decades, as the case has been with the exclusion zone that now surrounds the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine.
Read more: http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/...