Returning to Fukushima | Explorer
PHIL KEOGHAN: Nuclear power has been a reliable source of energy for 70 years. But it comes with the risk of a meltdown, as we saw in Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011. After Chernobyl, Russia ordered a 1,600 square mile area around the plant abandoned forever. But a very different plan is underway in Fukushima. Here's correspondent Mariana van Zeller in Japan.
[buzzer sounding]
BRET BAIER: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has reportedly lost control, after an earthquake and tsunami a meltdown. The radiation is streaming out of the Daiichi complex.
BARACK OBAMA: This is a catastrophic disaster.
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MARIANA VAN ZELLER: I'm here in Fukushima, exploring one of the towns abandoned by the disaster. Radiation is still too high for people to live here. This looks like it used to be a beauty salon. It had a lot of damage. This looks like it used to be a flower or plant shop. We have to be very careful with what we touch or where we step, because there's all this sort of radioactive dust and particles everywhere. Oh, wow. Look at this. Whoa. This was a retirement home. Everywhere, there's just evidence of panic to get out of here as fast as possible. It's really a time capsule of a really bad disaster that happened here.
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The Daiichi nuclear power plant sits on the easternmost edge of the Fukushima prefecture. When it blew, it spewed radiation across dozens of towns, triggering a 12-mile evacuation zone that's still partially in effect today. The plant itself is still the most hazardous site. If Japan is encouraging people to move back, how have conditions improved in the seven years since the disaster? I'm meeting up with radiation researcher, Azby Brown, who was able to get special access to take us to the plant.
AZBY BROWN: Let's head out.
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: So this is an area that people passed [inaudible]
AZBY BROWN: You need permission to get in there. So we've obtained the permission.
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Azby says we're OK to spend a short time there. But I'm going to play it safe, and stay in my protective gear.
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Whoa.
AZBY BROWN: Yup. That's it. Fukushima Daiichi.
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: We are so close. So no one has been in there since the disaster?
AZBY BROWN: Actually, there's 5,000 people working there. It's a massive cleanup. They can get into parts of the buildings, but they send robots in to take video and to do work.
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Wow.
AZBY BROWN: People can't even go in there, the radiation is so high. It's thousands of times higher--
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Than what it is right here?
AZBY BROWN: Yeah, than here.
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: How long would a person be able to survive in there?
AZBY BROWN: A couple of minutes. You would get so much radiation, damaging and killing your cells, that your organs would start to fail. There may be some way to clean it up in 20 years or so, to make it livable. But it's an incredibly daunting task.
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Still, Japan has taken on the most extensive nuclear cleanup ever attempted worldwide. The government claims that by removing the top inches of soil, where toxins have settled, it will make the land safe again to live. For seven years, workers have been moving inch by inch, town by town, digging out layers of poisonous waste, dropping it into plastic bags, and storing it at temporary sites. These are all bags with the nuclear waste. I mean, it looks like hundreds of thousands of bags just on this one site. In parking lots, fields, and abandoned yards, throughout Fukushima, there are 9 million bags of waste, and counting.
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Japan says the cleanup effort is working, and towns on the edge of the evacuation zone are safe to resettle. In 2015, they deemed Naraha, 12 miles south of the reactor site, the first town ready to reopen. Yet less than half of the 7,400 residents returned.
[speaking japanese]
You have a beautiful house. How long have you lived here for?
[speaking japanese]
About a year and a half after Naraha reopened, the government cut off subsidies paying for evacuees to live in temporary housing. They hoped residents would come home, but many chose to move elsewhere.
Oh, wow. And although the government claims the land is safe, Yanai is not convinced. So he's willing to put his life in danger to cleanup his place. Most of the places around here, it's the government workers that are removing the contaminated soil. But you've decided to do it yourself. Why?
[speaking japanese]
How much time did that take you?
[speaking japanese]
Can you show me how you do it?
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The top layer is all toxic soil. So in order to decontaminate it, you really have to excavate.
[speaking japanese]
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It's not just fear of radiation preventing residents from returning to Naraha.
[speaking japanese.]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: After years of abandonment, towns in the area have been overrun by wild boars. They're ravaging homes, and everything in their path.
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: The boars are not on the aggressive and known to attack, they're radioactive.
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: How many boars have you caught this way?
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: 2,000 hogs?
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: So when the boar comes in, he triggers the wire and the gates close?
Whoa.
Yes.
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: So he's saying we have to go because they think they've caught another boar in one of the other traps and they want to go check it right now.
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It's dangerous?
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: They attack you?
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: I think it's right there. It's being held by something around his foot.
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Don't get too close.
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: It's a big one.
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Oh, my god.
FUKUO FURUICHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: He's taking out his gun, and he's about to shoot the-- oh.
[gunshot]
That was awful. He shot him right on the head, and he's dying right now. This is really sad to watch.
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The challenges in Naraha seem overwhelming. Still, Japan is pushing for more residents to come home. Even with all the cleanup and rebuilding, I can't help wondering, will it ever be enough?
Can you give me an idea of how much money has been spent in trying to get people to come back?
KENJI OWADA: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Can you guarantee with 100% that it's safe right now for people to come back?
KENJI OWADA: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: We're going to check out one of the government's most significant efforts in Naraha, a state of the art project that every community in the world needs to thrive. We're visiting this new school that they just built.
Right here in the parking lot, there is this radiation monitor, so that parents, when they drop off their kids at school every morning, they can make sure that it's safe for the kids to go to school.
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This is a beautiful school.
MASANORI SATO: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: So because of the radiation levels, you had to demolish the previous school and build an entirely new one?
MASANORI SATO: Yes.
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: What is this?
MASANORI SATO: Elementary, sixth grade.
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Sixth graders. Oh, chemistry.
MASANORI SATO: Yes.
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: They're good students.
MASANORI SATO: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: This is a beautiful school. They spent millions of dollars building it. And yet, it only has 68 students. It's built for 300.
MASANORI SATO: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: But enrollment has doubled since the first year, a promising sign that others will follow.
MASANORI SATO: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: So cute.
MASANORI SATO: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Children are actually the most vulnerable for radiation. So every day, Mr. Ouchi here prepares all the local food that they have from this region, and then tests it for radioactivity.
Have there have been times where you've checked and the radiation levels have been too high?
TAKAO OUCHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: How many times a day do you have to do this?
TAKAO OUCHI: [speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: It's really crazy, all that they have to go through to just make sure that the food is safe enough for the kids here to eat.
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OK.
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Coming back from a disaster of this scale is a decades-long endeavor. But for some families, living elsewhere is simply not an option.
SATOKO YAMAUCHI: [speaking japanese]
The Yamauchi family moved back a year ago. They had to demolish their old home, and everything in it. They rebuilt from scratch. Were you scared to come back?
SATOKO YAMAUCHI: [speaking japanese]
HIROYUKI YAMAUCHI: [speaking japanese]
SATOKO YAMAUCHI: [speaking japanese]
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MARIANA VAN ZELLER: In 2020, Fukushima's recovery efforts will be center stage at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, 150 miles away. To honor the region, the torch relay will begin in Fukushima.
So I've been in Fukushima for a few days now. And it seems that with every tragic story, there's also a story about hope, and people really trying and fighting to bring this place back to life.
[speaking japanese]
MARIANA VAN ZELLER: Cheers to Fukushima.
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