Fukushima Daiichi — 4 years ago today

March 11th, 2015

fukushima-daiichi2

Four years ago today nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi started melting down.

fukushimareactors1… same type of reactor that it is in Monticello, along the Mississippi River, upriver and just northwest of the Twin Cities.

Four years later…

Japan Radiation Map

Four years later…

Some residents to ‘come home to Fukushima disaster zone

The government says about 138,000 Fukushima residents are still living in temporary accommodation.

At a meeting Sunday, Miyakoji residents were told that radiation contamination levels had lowered sufficiently for their return to the area — though some voiced concern over existing radiation levels despite decontamination efforts around some communities.

Four years later…

Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue

Four years later…

Navy Sailors Possibly Exposed to Fukushima Radiation Fight for Justice

In March of 2011, the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan rushed to Japan to help after the disastrous tsunami. Since then, many sailors from that ship have fallen ill, possibly as a result of exposure to radiation from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown. They will soon have their day in court.

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The court decision came in the mail a few weeks later. The class-action lawsuit, the court ruled on Oct. 28, may proceed. Oral arguments are scheduled to begin on Feb. 26.

The complaint is 100 pages long and contains the names of 247 sick sailors along with details pertaining to reactor construction, water samples taken, Navy tactics and Japanese politics. It assails company greed just as it does the negligence of those who built the Fukushima reactors — and goes on to censure global politics and the cynicism of humankind. A kind of Old Testament fury infuses the text, and the complaint is so sweeping that it almost loses track of its true target. The USS Ronald Reagan appears therein as humanity’s last ship. An aircraft carrier. A ship of ghosts.

Posted by Carol A. Overland
Filed in Disasters, Energy, Nuclear
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