Japan Press Weekly

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2012 July 4 - 10 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Gov’t should be responsible for decontamination work in Fukushima

In the Haramachi district in Fukushima’s Minamisoma City, farmers without safety measures in place are engaged in radiation decontamination work which are being carried out to give assistance to achieve some recovery of farm management, Akahata on July 8 reported.

The farmers of the Haramachi district receive daily wages for restoration work such as removing disaster rubble from farmland and mud from agricultural waterways. This is based on a program that the agriculture ministry is carrying out in the disaster-hit region with the aim to financially support farmers to restart their farming activities.

An area where the farmers conduct the work is the former “No-entry zone”, now designated as a “special area for decontamination” where the state is responsible for the radiation decontamination work.

The environment ministry’s decontamination guideline states that any work conducted in the special area such as mowing grass or scooping out mud from ditches is considered as radiation decontamination work. However, when the Haramachi farmers apply for the program, the agriculture ministry puts no importance on health and safety considerations in regard to radiation doses in the area.

This highlights the negative effects of the government’s vertical administrative structure in which the environment ministry is in charge of decontamination work, the labor ministry in charge of safety measures, and the agriculture ministry in charge of support for farmers. Although a post-disaster reconstruction agency was established, it has done nothing.

The Minamisoma city office found that at two places in the former “No-entry zone” in the Haramachi district, the amount of radiation in the air was 0.26 to 0.35 microsievert per hour. The figure exceeds 0.23 microsievert per hour, the maximum limit for the decommission area set by the central government.

A 70-year-old farmer who is engaged in the restoration work said, “I can’t start farming and worry about my future because my only income is the compensation from TEPCO. I have to continue taking part in the work projects. I want the authorities to ensure our safety.”