Old habits die hard among fishermen: Yoshio Ichida still rises for work every day at 3am and checks the engine of his five-ton boat. Then as the sun rises over the Pacific and the trawler bobs gently in Soma wharf, he switches off the engine and gazes out at a sea too poisoned to fish.
Just 43km (27 miles) up the coast from this small harbour town, radioactivity from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant leaks into the ocean, and into the sardines, mackerel and squid that three generations of Ichida’s family once caught. Engineers are fighting what appears to be a losing battle to stop the leaks from worsening.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) warned this week that the buildup of contaminated groundwater at the facility was on the verge of tipping out of control and said plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) lacked a sense of crisis about the looming damage to the Pacific.
Right now, we have an emergency, said Shinji Kinjo, head of an NRA taskforce.
Kinjo warned that leaking water had already flowed over a barrier built by engineers to block it.
A survey by Japan’s ministry of economy, trade and industry released this week said water laced with caesium and other radioactive materials was flowing into the ocean at a rate of 300 tonnes a day. The ministry, which oversees the nuclear industry, said it could not rule out the possibility that the water had been leaking into the Pacific since the crisis began more than two years ago.
Leaks admitted
Critics have accused the NRA of allowing Tepco off the hook. After months of denials, the embattled utility was finally forced to admit the groundwater leaks last week, conveniently timed, many suspect for after a general election that saw Japan’s pro-nuclear prime minister, Shinzo Abe, solidify power.
Anti-nuclear voices in the media were muted during the election campaign, and on occasion silenced completely: a YouTube video showing Abe’s security detail confiscating an anti-nuclear sign from a woman during a speech in Fukushima has gone viral but has never been seen on TV: iti.ms/13QKh5T.
Tepco last week admitted a cumulative leak of 20 trillion to 40 trillion becquerels of radioactive tritium since the March 11th, 2011, earthquake and tsunami that triggered the triple meltdown. One of the cocktail of contaminants swimming in the onsite water, tritium has a half-life of about 12 years.
Earlier this month, Tepco acknowledged that levels of radioactive caesium-134 were at their highest point since the disaster began. We’re sorry for delaying this information, said Tepco spokesman Yoshikazu Nagai. We’re trying very hard to stop the leaks and fix the problem.
2013 THE IRISH TIMES