![]() While a 2012 World Health Organization report found that “predicted (health) risks remain low” following the Fukushima disaster, in the two locations where residents experienced the highest doses of radiation, the WHO said a 4% to 7% greater risk of developing certain forms of cancer such as leukemia was expected.Īs the Fukushima plant was melting down, more than 300,000 people living nearby were evacuated, according to the Red Cross.įive years after the disaster, tens of thousands still live in temporary housing only intended to last 24 months. “And that’s very dangerous for the future.” “There’s still an enormous amount of radioactivity there which is not controlled, in liquid form, leaking into the underground, and slowly moving into the ocean,” said Greenpeace Japan campaigner Jan Vande Putte. TEPCO estimates that cleanup operations could take up to 40 years. How the water and earth will be disposed of isn’t clear. The government has also spent more than $1.5 billion collecting radioactive soil and earth from the surrounding area, which now sits in thousands of industrial-sized black bags looking like the world’s deadliest grain harvest. Some 800,000 tons of highly-radioactive water now sit in hastily-built tanks at the site, enough to fill 315 Olympic-sized swimming pools, with around 400 tons added to the tanks every day. “If the tsunami caused the plant to lose power to cool the reactors, it would be a disaster.” His first thought was of the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Saito recalls staring helplessly out of his hospital room window as waves inundated the town beneath him. The earthquake and tsunami were just the beginning however. More than 20,000 people died or went missing in the earthquake and subsequent tsunami, while hundreds of thousands more lost their homes. The impact also raised huge waves up to 40 meters high that, as people were still reeling from the aftershocks, began crashing into the country. The quake was so strong that it permanently moved Japan’s main island, Honshu, more than two meters to the east. Medical equipment came crashing to the floor.įor almost six minutes on March 11, 2011, the 9.0 magnitude earthquake - the worst to ever hit Japan - rocked the country. The 65-year old had just undergone surgery for prostate cancer and was recuperating when the walls of his 6th floor room began to shake. Soichi Saito was in hospital when the earthquake hit.
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