In Cities in Fukushima, Abnormal Has Become Normal One Year After the Nuclear Accident

It is well-captured in a Mainichi Shinbun article and an Asahi Shinbun article that I found yesterday.

It may be puzzling to read about these, looking in. But for the residents inside Fukushima, this may be fast becoming the accepted way of life.

First, from the Mainichi article (4/7/2012, local Fukushima version; part) talking about school lunches in Fukushima City and school playground rules in Koriyama City and Minami Soma City:　

福島市は９日から、全７３市立小中学校の給食に含まれる放射性セシウムを毎日調べる「学校給食まるごと検査事業」を始める。検査機器が増設され、１１年度の週１回〜月２回のサンプル調査より検査態勢を強化した。

Fukushima City will test school lunches for the city's 73 public elementary schools and junior high schools for radioactive cesium every day, starting April 9. The city has installed more testing equipments, and is now able to test more frequently than in the fiscal 2011 when the test was done once a week or once in two weeks.

　給食を１食分余分に作り、学校給食センターと支所・学習センターの計２１カ所で検査する。１検体を１１〜３０分測り、検出限界値は１キロ当たり２０ベクレル。「食品の新基準値（同１００ベクレル）以下でも安心が得られない」（市教委）として、１食分で２０ベクレル以上を検出した場合は廃棄し、個別に検査した米などの主食と牛乳だけを提供する。１１年度のサンプル調査では、２０ベクレル以上の検体は無かった。

The school lunch centers will make one extra lunch each day and the lunch will be tested at 21 locations. Testing time will be between 11 to 30 minutes, and the detection limit is 20 becquerels/kg. The city's Board of Education says, "We cannot feel safe even it tests below the new safety limit for food (100 becquerels/kg or less)." If more than 20 becquerels/kg of cesium is detected, the lunch will be discarded, and the students will be served with rice and milk separately tested for safety. In the fiscal 2011, no lunch that was sample tested was found with 20 becquerels/kg of cesium.

　また、郡山市の市立小中学校は６日、昨年５月から続けてきた屋外活動を制限する３時間ルールを解除した。南相馬市も解除した。

Koriyama City lifted the 3-hour restriction for outdoor activities at the city's public elementary schools and junior high schools on April 6. The limit had been in place since May last year. Minami Soma City also lifted its restriction.

　体育などの屋外活動を１日１時間以内、部活動を２時間以内に制限する郡山市の独自基準で、市内の小学校５８校、中学校２８校で実施。市教委は、表土除去などの除染活動が進み、各校の校庭の空間放射線量が児童、生徒の安全を確保できるレベルまで低減したと判断し、解除を決めた。

Koriyama City's own restriction limited the outdoor activities at public schools (58 elementary schools and 28 junior high schools) to 1 hour per day for PE classes and 2-hour per day for extracurricular activities. The city's Board of Education has decided that the decontamination including removing the top soil has effectively lowered the air radiation levels on the school grounds to the levels where the safety of the pupils and students can be secured.

　中学生の子どもを持つ４０代の母親は「昨年度までと同じグラウンドなので、これからは大丈夫と言われても……。子どもには、部活中もマスクを外さないと約束させている」と戸惑い気味に話した。

A mother in her 40s with a child attending a junior high school in the city was puzzled. She said, "It is the same school ground as in the last fiscal year, but now they tell us it will be OK from now on. I've made my child promise to wear the mask during the extracurricular activities."

As of April 1, 2012, food is now "safe" as long as cesium is below 100 Bq/kg, instead of 500 Bq/kg only one day prior. As the new school semesters start, the school grounds are suddenly "safe" and no need to worry about radiation. ("Black dust" in Minami Soma? What black dust?) What a difference a day makes, indeed.

By the way, the detection limit of 20 Bq/kg is high compared to other cities in other prefectures that have been testing the school lunches. In Kamakura City in Kanagawa Prefecture, for example, the detection limit is 3 Bq/kg, and it is set to get lower with the introduction of the germanium semiconductor detector starting April 9.

The Asahi article was written by Shunsuke Kimura, an Asahi Shinbun reporter in Fukushima. On April 7, he participated as "decontamination" volunteer in a volunteer project to "decontaminate" one of the high-radiation hot spots in Watari District in Fukushima City. He says 387 "volunteers" including 82 from all over Japan participated.

Why do I put volunteers in the parenthesis? Well, reading the article I got the feeling that it may not have been so "voluntary" for some participants.

From Asahi Shinbun local Fukushima version (4/8/2012; part):

除染、除染というけれど、除染っていったい何をするの？７日、福島市渡利地区の弁天山（標高１４３メートル）での作業にボランティアとして参加してみました。

Everyone talks about decontamination. But what do we do in "decontamination"? So I participated in the decontamination work as a volunteer to decontaminate Benten-Yama (altitude 143 meters) in Watari District of Fukushima City on April 7 to find out. [The photo shows the reporter stuffing the bag with dead leaves.]

　●落ち葉集め袋詰め　３時間で最大３割減

Stuffing dead leaves in bags, 3 hours, max 30% reduction [of radiation]

　雨がっぱの上下に帽子、マスク、軍手に長靴姿。２０～３０人の班で、区分けされた斜面を担当した。熊手で落ち葉をかき集め、土ごとポリ袋に詰める。記者もポリ袋を手に斜面に入った。

Rain jacket and rain pants, hat, mask, cotton work gloves and rain boots. People were divided into groups of 20 to 30 people, and the groups were assigned segments of the mountain slope. They raked in the dead leaves, and stuffed them, with the dirt, into plastic bags. I went up the slope with a bag in hand.

　普段、運動をしていないせいか、すぐに息が荒くなる。マスクから漏れる息で眼鏡が曇る。視界の悪い中、ひたすら目の前の落ち葉を袋に詰めた。１０分ほどで腰が痛くなってきた。

Soon, I was breathing hard. Lack of regular exercise. My eyeglasses got foggy from the breath escaping from my mask. I kept stuffing the bag with dead leaves in front of me. My back started to hurt after 10 minutes.

　集めても集めても落ち葉はなくならない。休憩に入ると、雪がちらついてきた。汗が冷えて寒い。

No matter how much I collected, there were more dead leaves. During the break, it started to snow. My sweats turned cold.

　毎時１マイクロシーベルト超のため現場での食事はできなかった。近くの県社会福祉協議会にバスで移動して昼食。地元の方が温かいみそ汁を用意してくれていた。

Because the radiation level here exceeded 1 microsievert/hour, we couldn't eat lunch where we worked. We were transported on the bus to a nearby location to have lunch. Local residents greeted us with warm miso-soup that they had prepared.

　近くに座っていた男性と話をした。群馬県の自宅を午前５時に出てきたという下瀬川正幸さん（４６）。「県外の人が多いなぁ。遠くから来ている人はやっぱり福島の子供のためにと思っているはず」と話す。

I talked with a man sitting nearby. Masayuki Shimosegawa (age 46) left his home in Gunma Prefecture at 5 in the morning. He said, "So many people from outside Fukushima. I think people who have come from far-away places are here for the children of Fukushima."

　またバスで戻り、作業再開。だんだんこなれてきたのか、袋詰めが速くなってきた気がする。

Back to the bus to the work. I thought I was able to pack the bag much faster now.

　午後３時ごろに終了。市が予定した１．３ヘクタールを除染しきれなかったが、落ち葉を詰めたポリ袋は約３５００袋に。３１５立方メートル分という。記者の班は高さ１センチの表面線量が毎時１．９５マイクロシーベルトから同１．５２５と２割減。除染効果が最大の班でも３割減だった。

The work was done around 3PM. We couldn't decontaminate the entire 1.3 hectares that the city had planned, but there were 3,500 bags of dead leaves. 315 cubic meters. The area that I worked on had the radiation level at 1 centimeter off the ground dropped from 1.95 microsievert/hour to 1.525 microsievert/hour, 20% reduction. The maximum reduction was at most 30%.

　ボランティアには秋田県から熊本県まで８２人が県外から参加。県内からの参加者や地元住民、県職員、福島市職員を合わせた計３８７人が作業に当たった。

82 people from Akita Prefecture to Kumamoto Prefecture [Kyushu] joined as volunteers. There were also participants from inside Fukushima Prefecture, the local residents, workers from the Fukushima prefectural government and Fukushima City government. In total, 387 people did the decontamination.

　作業は午前と午後で計約３時間。福島市から貸与された線量計では４マイクロシーベルト。会社に戻ると、体が重く感じることに気づいた。日頃の運動不足が身に染みた。

I worked for 3 hours total, in the morning and in the afternoon. The dosimeter that Fukushima City let us use showed 4 microsieverts. I went back to my office. I noticed that my body felt heavy. I really should have done more regular exercise.

4 microsieverts external radiation exposure from 3-hour work. Just smile, radiation is good for you, say many nuclear experts all around the world.

Benten-Yama Park is a known hot spot in the (already high-radiation) Watari District in Fukushima City. The Ministry of Education and Science (MEXT) has the website for real-time measurement of radiation levels in Fukushima, the MEXT page for Benten-Yama Park shows 1.362 microsievert/hour radiation at 50 centimeters off the ground, at 6:50AM on April 9, 2012.

Tweet