東京電力福島第一原発1号機の原子炉建屋カバーの解体工事は、開始予定から2カ月が過ぎても見通しが立っていない。昨年8月の3号機がれき撤去作業で放射 性物質を含んだ粉じんの飛散が発覚し、地元市町村との調整が難航しているためだ。政府と東電は、遅れが1号機の核燃料取り出しの工程に影響する可能性があ るとして市町村に説明を始めたが、住民の不安を解消できるかは不透明だ。
■相次いだ注文
8月下旬に南相馬市議会で開かれた東 日本大震災と原発事故対策調査特別委員会。議員からは放射性物質の飛散を防止するため、1号機カバーの解体工事自体を行わないように求める意見や、1~3 号機全体を覆うコンテナを設置するよう望む意見が出るなど飛散防止をめぐる対策に注文が相次いだ。
桜井勝延市長は今月に入ってから、東電に対し飛散対策の徹底を申し入れる要望書を提出。飛散した際の速やかな情報伝達や強風時の作業の中断などを求めた。
同市の担当者は「コメの汚染の問題があり、住民のことを考えるとどうしても慎重になる」と説明する。
東電は第一原発周辺の13市町村に安全対策の説明を重ねている。市町村の了解を得れば、すぐにも解体工事を始める方針だ。(略)
■万が一
政府は住民の不安をなくすため、放射性物質を含んだ粉じんが万が一、飛散した場合の対応準備を進める。
緊急時迅速放射能影響予測ネットワークシステム(SPEEDI)の活用を検討しているほか、一時立ち入りの住民らに迅速に周知するため、トランシーバーを使った情報連絡などを実施する方針。
災害発生時の情報の速やかな伝達は震災と原発事故の教訓だ。経済産業省資源エネルギー庁の担当者は「地元の信頼を得るには東電だけでなく、国が関わることが重要だ」としている。■背景
東京電力福島第一原発3号機で昨年8月、がれき撤去作業に伴い放射性物質を含んだ粉じんが飛散した。南相馬市で昨年秋に収穫されたコメから食品衛生法の基 準値(1キロ当たり100ベクレル)を超える放射性セシウムが検出され、農林水産省は粉じんの飛散が原因の可能性があるとして東電に対策を求めた。東電は 「因果関係は不明」としている。東電は原子力規制委員会の認可を受け、1号機原子炉建屋カバーの解体工事を7月中に開始すると発表していた。
After the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, the Miyakoji district — the portion of Tamura closest to the plant — was within the mandatory evacuation zone. (The advisory was lifted last April, making it the first place in Fukushima where evacuees were allowed to return home.) Radiation readings were high in other areas of Tamura as well, exceeding the Japanese government’s target ambient radiation level of 0.23 microsieverts per hour. Decontaminating Mushi Mushi Land was not high on the local government’s priority list. So Yoshida and other employees, along with many volunteers, did it themselves. Yoshida says they removed about two inches of soil and leaf litter from any areas where children might play. They scraped moss off tree roots, removed bark and trimmed portions of trees with high radiation readings. A 65-foot radius of forest surrounding the beetle petting zoo was scraped clean.
[…]
The beetle petting zoo — which has reopened, though the amusement park has not — drew just 9,800 visitors last year, nearly all from Fukushima prefecture. Mushi Mushi Land once paid local farmers 30 yen — about 30 cents — per beetle larva and bought as many as 70,000 a year. Eleventh-generation farmer Yoshiteru Watanabe took in about $300 a year from the larvae. “My mother collected them and packed them and brought them to the company,” he says. “It was pocket money. But she was very happy.”
Collecting the fallen leaves where beetles like to lay their eggs is now forbidden because the forests have not been decontaminated. Local farmers must use commercial compost (beetles not included). Mushi Mushi Land now buys beetle larvae from mushroom farmers in Nihonmatsu, a city to the northwest. “These are large-scale farms. Just one farmer can give us 7,000 or 8,000 larvae,” Yoshida says. “But our original intention, to benefit Tamura, is over.”
Beetle larvae are the least of Fukushima farmers’ problems. The prefecture was once known for its rice, produce and seafood. More than three years after the disaster, some nations still ban the import of products from Fukushima and many Japanese remain wary of purchasing food produced in the prefecture.
[…]
Reports from both the World Health Organization and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation support the prefecture’s safety claims. They conclude that any radiation-induced effects of the 2011 accident on residents of Fukushima outside the most contaminated areas would be too small to identify. (By these standards, visitors run hardly any risk at all.)
But little is known about the health effects of long-term exposure to low levels of radiation. And a few worrisome patterns have emerged. Doctors in Fukushima have found higher than normal rates of thyroid cancer in children. (Skeptics say this is simply the result of better monitoring.) And several studies on wild animals in Fukushima — including birds, butterflies and monkeys — suggest that radiation is already having significant impacts on some species.
Some people feel that the government’s radiation measurements themselves are inadequate. Safecast — a nonprofit formed after the Fukushima Daiichi accident for the purpose of gathering more detailed radiation data — uses crowdsourcing to fill the gaps. “Radiation levels can fluctuate in very short distances, so that simply crossing a street can sometimes yield dramatically different readings,” notes Safecast’s website. By arming hundreds of citizens with radiation-reading devices, Safecast has created a much more detailed map of radiation dispersal from the Fukushima Daiichi plant.


