Month: September 2011

Andrés Sánchez Braun

Tokyo, 10 sep (EFE).-the crisis in the nuclear power plant in Fukushima unleashed six months ago has redrawn the face of the Japanese province which is home to her and threatens to leave uninhabited for years, the area surrounding the plant, at the time symbol of progress economic.

The opening of central Fukushima Daiichi early 1970s coincided with the increasing industrialization and enrichment of the region, whose per capita income has steadily increased since 1972, according to the Government provincial.

The accident after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11 had hampered the development of Fukushima, still pending that the affected reactors can be carried “cold stop” in January 2012.

Still to fulfil this objective, the Government hinted last August that access to certain areas within the 20 km perimeter set up around the central could remain closed for long time.

The estimate responds to the Ministry of science, preliminary data indicate that 15 of 50 points analysed within this area would exceed the maximum radiation levels recommended by the International Commission of protection radiation.

This would mean that part of the 80,000 families living in this area, and who remain evacuated, may not return to their homes until years after be closed the crisis.

“It is sad to say, but the centres of cities, towns and villages around (the central) are populations ghost without a soul in sight,” stated recently the Minister of industry, Yoshio Hachiro, after visiting the area.

In general, emissions from the plant threaten to subject certain points in the province an Oblivion similar to which the region suffered until the 7th century, when the incommunicado northeast of the country still was known as Michi-no-ku, in Japanese “Earth away from the road”.

The nuclear disaster has seriously affected the main industries of a province in which they live more than 2 million people, and especially in agriculture, its major source of income.

Fukushima has the fourth largest agricultural area of Japan and it is one of the largest national producers of peaches, apples, pears, tomatoes, cucumbers and plant tobacco.

But if the province was already struggling before March 11 against the progressive abandonment of the countryside, where farmers increasingly older does not have to leave their farms, now the danger of radioactive contamination threatens to leave the fields yet more depopulated.

High levels of cesium-based forage that is fed to cattle led to the ban on selling beef Fukushima for more than one month, while 48 of its municipalities rice should be subjected to exhaustive controls that certify that it contains no more than 200 becquereles of this substance by kilo.

Other 11 cities who grow this cereal can take years to do so, to be found in the area of evacuation.

Any garden or pasture of Fukushima may be affected by radiation, which is why livestock and plants are subjected to tests already carried out in 17 different provinces of the country, reported that the Government ran up at the end of August.

The crisis has made fall with force the prices of many agricultural products of the province, as reflected in the guidelines drawn up by the Executive for the compensation payable by the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the affected.

Same thing happened with the shellfish and fish that mostly came from its two main ports: Soma and Onahama.

In the first, the tsunami devastated the fishing infrastructure, while in the vicinity of the second, located 55 km south of the central, Greenpeace detected fish that doubled the maximum rate recommended by the Government of 500 radioactive caesium per kilo becquereles.

The future of local fishermen, whose active population also waning years, could worsen confirm the Japan Atomic Energy Agency data, which estimate that you between March 21 and April 30 central could pour into the sea approximately 15,000 terabecquereles of caesium and radioactive iodine. EFE