Article: Joso living issued by 2015/03

Measurement of Radioactivity still going on by Citizen

It has been 4 years after TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station’s accidents. People’s interest towards the accident has been decreasing. However, there are people who started measuring the radiation on their own to acquire more precious data so they can pass them onto the next generation.

“Radiation might reach to Tsuchiura”. Co-founder of an organization “Revitalizing Tsuchiura city” and Science professor Shinichiro Nagasaka was concerned when a strong North East wind blown after the accident on March 15, 2011. People called him to ask for his opinions about the accident. Two months after, the result of air contamination level was released, but his colleague and he decided to buy their own detector because “the results might different depends on the way they are measured and areas they measure”. They started measuring places such as parks, inside of shrines and individual houses that the government cannot cover.

Co-founder of the organization and Professor of the Ibaraki University Yoshichika Takamura had been evacuated to Okinawa with his grandchild right after the accident. He was very shocked to find that drainage in his house was 5.5 μSv/h.

As they investigated and measured the radiation, they found how the rain makes the radiation move around and how the radiation sink in the soil. They shared data of mini hotspots with people who wanted to know the information. They alerted people not to stay or go close to those areas.

The year after, they started decontaminating the areas. They repeated scraping the soil for 1cm, 5cm or 20cm and measured. They also created manual for how to decontaminate places. They published a book of the summary of 58 investigations they have done.

It has been three years and a half since they started their activities. The most common type of radiation is caesium 137 and the half-life for them is known to be 30 years. Mr. Nagasaka said “It does not have any shape or smell, but it is almost like light is leaking from an invisible light bulb.”

Requests to investigate their places by citizen have been decreasing compared to before. “It is not nice to know that your house is contaminated, but it is worse to ignore the reality” Mr.Takamura said alarmingly.

Radioactive substances move around with wind and rain. “We have the responsibility to record the data now and pass it onto the future generations. When something happens to the children in the future, it is important that the citizen have their own data of what had happened”.

The booklet that gathered data from February 2014 is on sale for ¥ 400.

“Nothing was detected”. When people hear the results, they go home with a relief. However, “there are less people who are concerned about the situation now”, said Misa Oomori from Tsukuba citizen’s radiation measuring station with a concern on her face.

She started farming with a natural method in Tsukuba in 2009, changing her life style completely from working in an office in Tokyo. She had some worries about losing the economic stability and social status, but her body needed to stop working long hours in the office. However, after two years of farming the life changed dramatically again due to the earthquake. She started volunteering at the station, and with the donation from people they bought detector to measure the radiation to make the unknown concerns into something people can visualize.   

The station is open for three days a week, and four main stuff are in charge of measuring soil and foods samples that are brought in by residents near by. When they put the samples in the detector, the computer which is connected to the machine shows the radioactive contamination level on the screen. They analyze spectrum data to distinguish between naturally-caused radiation and radiation from the accident.

They provide the precise results to the people, but it is up to the people to judge whether it is safe or not. The data is released on their website. “People judge based on a data that people would like to believe, therefore, some people become against each other” said Mrs. Oomori.

She continues to measure and provide data to disclose the reality. Thus, people can use the data to have meaningful discussion.

They have more than 1000 data. However, people who are concerned about their children and grandchildren, and ask advice from them are decreasing as well as people who are willing to support their activities.

However, Mrs.Oomori is unstoppable because she said “I am glad I took this step, because it is connected to the society I would like to live in.”