JAPAN: Zen Buddhist monk starts the clean-up of Fukushima city's radiation "hotspots" and storing the radioactive soil on temple grounds.

Record ID: 466069

  • Title: JAPAN: Zen Buddhist monk starts the clean-up of Fukushima city's radiation "hotspots" and storing the radioactive soil on temple grounds.
  • Date: 11th February 2012
  • Summary: FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN (RECENT - FEBRUARY 4, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF JOENJI TEMPLE SIGN READING IN JAPANESE: "JOEN ZEN TEMPLE" STATUE OUTSIDE TEMPLE ZEN BUDDHIST MONK KOYU ABE OFFERING PRAYERS FOR THOSE WHO DIED IN JAPAN'S MARCH 11 EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI ABE STRIKING BELL VARIOUS OF ABE BEATING TAIKO DRUM CANDLE ON ALTAR / CALLIGRAPHY BEHIND ALTAR SHOWING PRAYER FOR CASUALTIES OF EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) HEAD MONK AT JOENJI ZEN BUDDHIST TEMPLE, KOYU ABE, SAYING: "The damage here in Fukushima is different from the destruction caused by the tsunami. You can't see it. Nothing looks as if it's changed, but really radiation is floating through the area. So it's hard for those hit by the tsunami; but in a slightly different sense, it's hard to live here too." VARIOUS OF ABE HOSING DOWN RADIATION HOTSPOT NEAR TO TEMPLE WITH CHEMICAL MIX THAT BONDS WITH RADIOACTIVE PARTICLES AND ALLOWS THEM TO BE MORE EASILY REMOVED VARIOUS OF MASATAKA AOKI, 65-YEAR-OLD NUCLEAR PLANT ENGINEER FOR HITACHI AND VOLUNTEER IN THE CLEAN-UP PROJECT, CHECKING GROUND FOR RADIOACTIVITY WITH GEIGER COUNTER GEIGER COUNTER SHOWING FIGURE RISING TO 9.06 MICROSIEVERTS PER HOUR MORE OF AOKI CHECKING GROUND AOKI PICKING UP GEIGER COUNTER (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) MASATAKA AOKI, 65-YEAR-OLD NUCLEAR PLANT ENGINEER FOR HITACHI AND VOLUNTEER IN THE CLEAN-UP PROJECT, SAYING: "The thing I'd come to believe was good, useful to society, turned out to be useless and cause everyone trouble. So for me, I feel a deep sense of remorse." GEIGER COUNTERS LAID OUT TO CHECK RADIATION LEVELS BY CANAL LOCAL RESIDENT WATCHING CHECKS GEIGER COUNTER SHOWING LEVELS AROUND 5.5 MICROSIEVERTS PER HOUR VARIOUS OF ABE WRITING CALLIGRAPHY IN TEMPLE OFFICE GEIGER COUNTER ON ABE'S DESK (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) HEAD MONK AT JOENJI ZEN BUDDHIST TEMPLE, KOYU ABE, SAYING: "Our mission at the temple is to make the happy things even happier and, as much as we can, shoulder those that cause sorrow -- as far as possible allowing people to escape their grief. That's the essence of our work. So to that end no effort is too much, be it our time or anything else." BLUE BARRELS FOR STORING RADIOACTIVE SOIL IN FRONT OF TEMPLE BUILDING VOLUNTEERS UNLOADING EQUIPMENT FROM TRUCK BAGS OF RADIOACTIVE DIRT IN TRUCK MORE OF VOLUNTEERS UNLOADING EQUIPMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) HEAD MONK AT JOENJI ZEN BUDDHIST TEMPLE, KOYU ABE, SAYING: "It's because no-one else would take the soil. If there's nobody to take care of it, the decontamination can't get going because there's nowhere to get rid of it. You have to be able to put the soil somewhere temporarily. Rather than having it all around you, a place somewhere else is surely a better option, isn't it? So I'm providing the space to store the soil here." VARIOUS OF BLUE CONTAINERS FOR STORING RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL IN GROUNDS OF TEMPLE
  • Embargoed: 26th February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Disasters
  • Reuters ID: LVA9ILQDAQJ0QGWVGYRVE10MI9T7
  • Story Text: On the snowy fringes of Japan's Fukushima city, Zen monk Koyu Abe offered prayers for the thousands dead or missing after last year's earthquake and tsunami.
    But away from the drums and the altar of Joenji temple, Abe took on another challenge -- the invisible demons left behind.
    Fifty kilometres (30 miles) away, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant suffered a series of explosions and meltdowns after the March 11 disasters, forcing some 80,000 people from their homes.
    The radiation spread far beyond the 20 kilometre (12 mile) radius evacuation zone, nestling in "hot spots" across the region.
    With ceremonial garb off and protective mask on, Abe tracked down lingering pockets of radiation with a team of volunteers.
    "The damage here in Fukushima is different from the destruction caused by the tsunami. You can't see it. Nothing looks as if it's changed, but really radiation is floating through the area. So it's hard for those hit by the tsunami; but in a slightly different sense, it's hard to live here too," Abe said.
    In a residential area of eastern Fukushima, some 15 volunteers looked for hotspots along a small path local parents said is mostly used by children on their walk to school.
    One test witnessed by Reuters saw the geiger counter peak at more than 9 microsieverts per hour, higher than some areas of the evacuation zone near the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
    Figures from government testing stations within the 20 kilometre radius on Saturday (February 4) were between 3.60 and 12.97 microsieverts per hour.
    A typical chest X-ray exposure is of about 20 microsieverts per scan.
    One of Abe's volunteers is 65-year-old Masataka Aoki, an engineer at nuclear plant maker Hitachi for more than four decades.
    However, after the meltdown, Atoki saw nuclear power differently.
    "The thing I'd come to believe was good, useful to society, turned out to be useless and cause everyone trouble," Aoki said.
    "So for me, I feel a deep sense of remorse," he added.
    Volunteers dig up any hotspots they find and load the soil into trucks. For hard-to-reach radiation, the area is hosed down with a special chemical formula that bonds with radioactive particles, and volunteers then remove the watery mixture.
    "Our mission at the temple is to make the happy things even happier and, as much as we can, shoulder those that cause sorrow -- as far as possible allowing people to escape their grief. That's the essence of our work. So to that end no effort is too much, be it our time or anything else," said Abe.
    Abe is also shouldering a radioactive burden.
    Neither the government nor Fukushima Daiichi plant operator Tepco are helping with hotspots, Abe said, so the monks are storing the soil on a hill behind the temple.
    Already volunteers have collected some 400 kilograms of radioactive waste.
    "No-one else would take the soil. If there's nobody to take care of it, the decontamination can't get going because there's nowhere to get rid of it," Abe said.
    Most people are exposed to natural radiation of 2000-3000 microsieverts a year.
    Exposure to 100,000 microsieverts a year is the lowest level at which an increase in cancer risk will be clearly evident.
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