July 9, 2013
Farmers and fishermens affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster raised voices in protest against four electric companies applying for assessment to restart their idled nuclear reactors on July 8, the day the new safety regulations came into effect.
Farmer Shibata Noriaki, 47, used to live in Fukushima’s Namie Town, which is now designated as a “difficult to return zone” by the state. Since the Fukushima disaster, Shibata and his family members have been forced to take shelter in temporary housing in Nihonmatsu City in the prefecture.
“Nuclear disaster victims are being disregarded,” Shibata said angrily. He went on to say that the utilities and the Liberal Democratic Party are moving ahead with their plans as if Fukushima never happened.
The highest radiation dose level on his farmland measures 20 microsieverts per hour, equivalent to 105 millisieverts on an annual basis, far higher than the 20 millisieverts set by the government as the annual upper limit before issuing an evacuation order.
“Even if I can’t get my life back as befor, I at least want the quality of my life back to what it was before. But I can’t even purchase a house here because the current compensation standards fall short of guaranteeing the payment for a house,” said Shibata.
Ono Haruo, a fisherman living in Shinchi Town in Fukushima, is unable to resume fishing operations after the nuclear disaster.
“The Fukushima nuclear crisis continues, and the direction our future will take is totally uncertain. Yet, power companies applied for the reactivation of their nuclear power stations. They don’t care about what’s happening in Fukushima,” Ono criticized.
Citing that Tokyo Electric Power Company said the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant is to enable its business recovery, Ono said, “I feel like I’m being threatened into accepting the reactivation in exchange for payments of compensation by TEPCO.”
Farmer Shibata Noriaki, 47, used to live in Fukushima’s Namie Town, which is now designated as a “difficult to return zone” by the state. Since the Fukushima disaster, Shibata and his family members have been forced to take shelter in temporary housing in Nihonmatsu City in the prefecture.
“Nuclear disaster victims are being disregarded,” Shibata said angrily. He went on to say that the utilities and the Liberal Democratic Party are moving ahead with their plans as if Fukushima never happened.
The highest radiation dose level on his farmland measures 20 microsieverts per hour, equivalent to 105 millisieverts on an annual basis, far higher than the 20 millisieverts set by the government as the annual upper limit before issuing an evacuation order.
“Even if I can’t get my life back as befor, I at least want the quality of my life back to what it was before. But I can’t even purchase a house here because the current compensation standards fall short of guaranteeing the payment for a house,” said Shibata.
Ono Haruo, a fisherman living in Shinchi Town in Fukushima, is unable to resume fishing operations after the nuclear disaster.
“The Fukushima nuclear crisis continues, and the direction our future will take is totally uncertain. Yet, power companies applied for the reactivation of their nuclear power stations. They don’t care about what’s happening in Fukushima,” Ono criticized.
Citing that Tokyo Electric Power Company said the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant is to enable its business recovery, Ono said, “I feel like I’m being threatened into accepting the reactivation in exchange for payments of compensation by TEPCO.”
