A LOOK AT FUKUSHIMA, 7 YEARS AFTER THE 2011 EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
AUGUST 28, 2018 BY ASHTYN DOUGLAS
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For 5-plus years following the event, tens of thousands of people have worked to decontaminate the plants and surrounding areas and reduce leakage, allowing people to slowly return to their hometowns. In the video above, the Olympic Channel highlights two local Fukushima surfers: Shigenori Suzuki, a surf instructor/truck driver, and Hideki Okumoto, a professor at Fukushima University, who talk about how the tsunami and the following events completely altered their lives both in the water and out.
Before the event, Fukushima was a popular surf zone and according to Okumoto, it likely would’ve been selected for the surfing venue of the upcoming 2020 Olympics. Towards the end of the video, Suzuki and Okumoto visit a nearby beach to test for radiation levels, which they found were actually similar to what they were before the nuclear meltdown. A bit shocking if you read reports from the Guardian and the Independent, about lethally high levels of radiation found near the reactor core last year and scientists’ estimate that it’ll take up to 40 years to clean up the nuclear mess in and around Fukushima.
Read more at IS FUKUSHIMA SAFE FOR SURFING?
