Official in Date City, Fukushima: "Residents Here Think They are the Victims of Accident Caused by TEPCO"

I thought they were. Apparently not to this official of a city where radioactive cesium in rice has just been found that exceeds the national provisional limit, and where blasting the fruit trees with water from a high-pressure washer and stripping the barks will decontaminate the fruits next year.

The following article appeared on the Fukushima local version of the largest national paper Yomiuri Shinbun.

From Yomiuri Shinbun Local (Fukushima) version (11/27/2011):

東京電力福島第一原発事故を受け、国際放射線防護委員会（ＩＣＲＰ）の委員らが２６日、県庁を訪れ、自治体の担当者らと意見交換した。

Commissioners from the ICRP visited the Fukushima government office on November 26 to exchange ideas with the municipal officials in Fukushima.

　放射線防護の専門家であるＩＣＲＰ委員が直接、県内の現状を聞いて除染や健康管理などの面で助言し、復興に役立てるのがねらい。

The purpose was for the ICRP commissioners to directly learn about the current situation in Fukushima Prefecture and to advise on decontamination and health care and assist in recovery and reconstruction [of Fukushima].

　ＩＣＲＰ第４委員会のジャック・ロシャール委員長や丹羽太貫・京都大名誉教授のほか、チェルノブイリ原発に近いベラルーシやフランス、ノルウェーの研究者らも出席。自治体や県立医大の担当者らが、それぞれ福島の現状について発表した。伊達市の職員は、「住民に除染方法を説明しても『東電がやるべきだ』と被害者意識が強く、なかなか協力が得られない」などと実情を説明した。

In attendance were Jacques Lochard, ICRP Committee 4 Chair, Otsura Niwa, professor emeritus at Kyoto University, and researchers from Belarus, France, and Norway. Officials from local municipalities and the prefectural medical university made the presentation on the current situation in Fukushima. An official from Date City explained the situation in the city, saying "Even when we explain how to decontaminate to the residents of the city, they have this victim mentality of "TEPCO should do it", and they don't cooperate readily."

　意見交換会は２７日も行われ、ＩＣＲＰの委員らが、土壌改良や住民の健康管理などチェルノブイリ原発事故で得た経験を披露し、福島第一原発事故での放射線防護について助言などを行う。

The meeting will continue on November 27. The ICRP commissioners will share the experience they have obtained from the Chernobyl accident in soil remediation and health care of the residents, and advise on the radiation protection from the Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident.

The official from Date City is complaining that the residents think they are the victims of the worst nuclear accident that the country has ever had, and that they are not doing what the officials like him tell them to do, which is to clean up the mess (radioactive materials spewed out of the broken reactors and spent fuel pools in Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant) themselves.

Amazing.

By the way I happen to remember seeing Dr. Niwa's name somewhere else at some other time. He was one of those "experts" who ridiculed and trashed people of Kyoto in August who were against burning the radioactive firewood (1130 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium) from Rikuzen Tataka City in Iwate Prefecture.

Dr. Niwa is now the president of his own company, Biomedics, which specializes in pharmaceuticals for cancer and auto immune diseases.

Interesting.

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