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2011 November 16 - 22 [NUCLEAR CRISIS]

Tokyo Univ. prof: Scientists must take responsibility for radioactive decontamination

University of Tokyo Radio Isotope Center head Kodama Tatsuhiko has been visiting Minami-Soma City (Fukushima Pref.) almost every week since late May to measure radiation levels at kindergarten playgrounds and schoolhouses and work for their decontamination.

Akahata of November 16 carried an interview with Professor Kodama as follows:

Q: Why have you been continuing doing the decontamination work in Minami-Soma City?

Kodama: I think that the University of Tokyo is seriously responsible for the latest nuclear accident. Many professors helped establish a school of thought in nuclear engineering in Japan that claimed that nuclear energy is safe. As the university’s radio isotope laboratory head, I think it reasonable to use the university’s resources to assist the victims in Fukushima.

Q: You say that the key in measuring levels of radioactivity and decontaminating is working together with citizens.

Kodama: Minami-Soma City is confronted with specific problems and the people are actually living under such circumstances. Our laboratory discussed the most useful role of scientific experts and summed them up in the following four principles: to correctly convey the knowledge that we have; offer the information in easy-to-understand terms, not just providing numerical data without explanation; avoid coercion; and give priority to citizens’ requests in case they differ from our opinion. Some argue that all citizens must move out or that decontamination is unnecessary. However, the point is in our doing the work on the spot as needed. I take back to the laboratory the questions put to me today, and examine them to find out what more we can do to help.

Q: We hear that you say that Japanese scientists are responsible for decontamination in Fukushima.

Kodama: Scientists have a great responsibility to society. Based on facts, scientists act, and discussion accompanies the action. The responsibility of scientists’ fact-based action is greater today than ever before.

Q: Is this why you have proposed to the government that food inspection procedures use the state-of-the-art technology?

Kodama: Yes. However, the government response at present is a combination of indifference, irresponsibility, and apathy. The worst example is the Nuclear Safety Commission (NSC). First of all, it has not shown any self-criticism about the occurrence of the nuclear accident. It made an unreliable response to the issue of the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose (SPEEDI), which had been operating at the time of the accident but had been too slow in publishing the information, and to the subsequent need for decontamination.

The NSC is supposed to be chief of the nuclear emergency headquarters, but it is doing nothing in the incident. It means that the strength of experts in Japan is left unused. The Japanese government must play a role in the society of the 21st century.