Fukushima volunteers

March 13, 2015

Volunteers risk radiation exposure to decontaminate Fukushima zone

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150312p2a00m0na011000c.html

MINAMISOMA, Fukushima -- On Feb. 21, 24 volunteers cleared away a 10-meter-tall bamboo grove in the Odaka district here -- an area contaminated with radioactive materials from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The group used handsaws and chainsaws to cut down the stems on a slope, and then fed them into a wood chipper. Half of the volunteers were women, and some of them were still of high school age. Among them was a 17-year-old girl from Chiba Prefecture, who took part in the program for the first time with her classmate. "I'm glad I can be of help to someone," she said.

The Odaka district, which lies within a 20 kilometer radius of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant, is designated as a "zone preparing for evacuation orders to be lifted" where residents are not allowed to take up lodgings as a general rule. Although the district is subject to government-led decontamination efforts, workers have yet to come into the area and its vicinity to do their work. The 17-year-old girl admitted that her family was worried about her taking part in the volunteer program, but she said, "I thought it would be all right after seeing their activities online."

According to Mitsuo Matsumoto, who heads the Minamisoma Volunteer Activity Center, airborne radiation levels are measured in the area before any work is done, and if the level is 2.5 microsieverts per hour or more, no work is carried out. If air dose rates are 1.5 microsieverts per hour or higher, only older volunteer workers are sent to the site. The level at the site on Feb. 21 was below 1.0 microsieverts per hour, Matsumoto says.

Mayuko Izumida, a 43-year-old part-time worker from Yokohama comes to the district approximately once every three months.

"I have been visiting 'at my own risk,' no matter what happens in the future," she says.

Ichiro Higashikawa, a 48-year-old man in the restaurant business from Tokyo's Koto Ward, was removing mud from a ditch next to a rice field in the Odaka district on Feb. 21. He said that he initially brought a dosimeter with him to measure air doses. He no longer does so, however, because he has gotten used to the situation in the area. Still, this does not mean he is unconcerned. "Under normal conditions, this is what the government should do more, not us," he says.

A worker engaged in government-led decontamination work in a different area was surprised to learn about the volunteer work.

"That's the same as some of our work," the worker said. "Caution should be exercised because air doses on the mountainside can be about 2 microsieverts per hour higher than those in other places."

Usually, volunteer work is not ongoing like the work of those hired specifically to do the cleaning. Still, the question remains as to why volunteers are risking exposure to radiation to perform their tasks. The reason is because the decontamination policy of the Ministry of the Environment does not live up to residents' expectations.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, decontamination work, as a general rule, does not extend to felling trees. Workers merely prune evergreen conifers, such as cedars, to a height of 4 meters from the ground. As for forest zones within a radius of 20 meters from residential areas, decontamination workers make it a standard practice to remove fallen leaves. They prune trees only when they judge them to be greatly affecting human life. The decontamination policy focuses on ground surfaces where radioactive substances move around in rain and with fallen leaves over time. However, the 4-meter rule for evergreen trees is scientifically invalid.

Municipal governments follow the central government's decontamination policy. But in the Fukushima Prefecture city of Nihonmatsu, the local government felled almost all trees at elementary and junior high schools in fiscal 2012 at its own discretion because radiation dose remained high around trees there even after cleansing work was carried out. As result, airborne radiation levels at all 23 schools dropped by as much as 20 percent. Such being the case, it is natural that some people want to have trees cut down.

The Mainichi Shimbun accompanied Matsumoto on a survey. Behind the house of the 67-year-old woman who requested the survey was a bamboo grove. She said she was told by a decontamination worker commissioned by the Environment Ministry, "We're not going to cut down the bamboo grove. If you want to have it cleared, please ask volunteers." The woman has been living alone in a temporary housing unit away from her son's family, with whom she had lived before the triple disaster. Volunteers are her only source of help.

When the woman bowed her head and apologized for requesting the work, Matsumoto told her, "The government is to blame. In fact, you could go further and lay the blame on Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)." Among sites Matsumoto's group has surveyed are those with air dose rates of 8 microsieverts per hour or higher. Matsumoto pulled out a dosimeter from his work clothes and said, "There were times when the accumulated dose reached 2,500 microsieverts in one month."

The Mainichi visited an office of an Iwaki-based group which was conducting volunteer activities in "difficult-to-return zones," where people are not allowed to enter, with the exception of reconstruction workers and residents returning to their homes temporarily.

Tsutomu Hirayama, 48, who heads "So-So Volunteer," is from the Fukushima Prefecture town of Tomioka. At the request of his friend, he took up volunteer work, shuttling local residents to and from their homes in "no-go zones" for temporary visits. He founded the volunteer organization in 2013 after seeing residents dumfounded when they returned to their homes temporarily. The grass was growing in front of the doorsteps of their houses and the rooms inside were in wild disorder, having been burgled. After he had his group's flyers inserted in public relations magazines published by local governments in the Futaba district, his group started to receive requests for help.

Five to eight volunteer workers can enter a local resident's home as "accompanying business operators" when that resident makes a temporary visit. Up to two cars carrying volunteer workers can travel with the local resident on their temporary visit. Wearing radiation protection suits, the volunteer workers, equipped with dosimeters, clean up their homes and mow the grass, among other tasks.

"When the airborne radiation level exceeds 10 microsieverts per hour, we will consult with volunteer workers on the spot," Hirayama said. "But they come to do the work with full knowledge (of the risks), and they all carry out their work." When he was cleaning up the house of a woman in her 80s in Futaba who had lost her husband after the triple disaster, Hirayama found her husband's favorite items. The woman was overjoyed. Hirayama commented, "At the very least, I hope they will find motivation for living during temporary returns to their homes."

An official of the Tomioka Labor Standards Supervision Office, which oversees the Futaba district, looked miffed when the topic of volunteers came up.

"Volunteers are not under our jurisdiction." The official said. "Volunteer work in difficult-to-return zones? I have never heard of it." (By Shunsuke Sekiya and Tomoki Okuyama, Tokyo City News Department)

March 13, 2015