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Fukushima residents asked to return despite strong concerns

Updated March 11, 2014 18:41:00

It's been three years since the Fukushima nuclear disaster forced more than 150,000 people from their homes and, now, Japan's Prime Minister wants to send them back despite former PMs describing the plan as irresponsible and a worker at the plant expressing concerns.

Source: 7.30 | Duration: 7min 30sec

Topics: nuclear-accident, world-politics, japan


SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: It's been three years since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. It was the world's worst nuclear meltdown since Chernobyl, forcing more than 150,000 from their homes.

Now the Japanese Prime Minister wants to send them home and switch the country's nuclear reactors back on.

But there's strong opposition to the moves. Three former Japanese prime ministers, two of whom spoke to 7.30, say the plans are irresponsible.

North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney has this exclusive report.

MATTHEW CARNEY, REPORTER: We've come to Fukushima's no-go zone, a 20-kilometre exclusion area, to test the Government's claims that all is under control and it's safe for people to return.

To get permission to enter, we have to take local resident Karzuo Okawa with us. He comes from Futaba, the town closest to the crippled Fukushima Number One plant.

KARZUO OKAWA, FUTABA RESIDENT: (Pointing to newspaper)

MATTHEW CARNEY: Ah, OK. That's the paper - that's from the day. 2011. So it's like time stopped on that day. So nothing has happened in this town, just from March 11 - nothing?

Okawa San comes back every couple of months.

KARZUO OKAWA (voiceover translation): I feel sad. I worked and played in this town and I enjoyed my life here, so I miss the good, old days.

MATTHEW CARNEY: He says he nor anybody else will be coming home soon. The radiation is dangerously high. We're only allowed to spend six hours here.

KARZUO OKAWA (voiceover translation): 50 per cent in my heart, I want to return here, but I know 100 per cent, I cannot come back.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Government is undertaking decontamination work in Futaba, but it seems to be having little impact.

So this is the local hospital at Futaba and there has been attempts to clean it up. You can see in these bags down here, they've put radioactive soil in them. The problem being, though, if you look at the dosimeter, we're still getting readings of 10, 12, which means that's 50 times the normal level of, say, Tokyo. So it is little wonder that people can't come back to live here.

And a little further away from Futaba, they're scraping off the topsoil from these former rice fields in preparation for people to return to their homes.

Across the no-go zone, thousands of workers are busy making mountains of radioactive soil. The problem is, there's nowhere to put the deadly piles and no-one wants to live near them.

The source of all this contamination is just behind me: Fukushima's damaged reactors. A clean-up job is underway there, but it could take 40 years. In all, half a million fuel rods have to be removed one-by-one. It's a risky and complex job and no-one's sure of the outcome. A decommissioning project of this scale has never been attempted before.

When it was announced Tokyo had won the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was quick to assure the world that Fukushima was safe.

SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER: Let me assure you the situation is under control.

MATTHEW CARNEY: But this whistleblower says the situation at Fukushima is totally out of control and no-one knows how to fix it. He's a senior insider who has worked at the site run by TEPCO for more than two decades. He faces instant dismissal if he shows his face.

TEPCO WHISTLEBLOWER (voiceover translation): It's not under control. There are too many systems and they all have problems. It's made worse because all the experienced workers have reached their radiation limits, so TEPCO has to rely on staff that don't know the site and who aren't trained.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The whistleblower says mistakes are made weekly and contaminated water leaks every day into the Pacific Ocean.

TEPCO WHISTLEBLOWER (voiceover translation): The other day when contaminated water overflowed from a tank, an alarm was ringing, but they didn't go and check. I couldn't believe it. It was ringing for nine hours and they thought the alarm was out of order.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The insider says the damaged reactors can never be decontaminated and that people should not be moved back into the no-go zone.

TEPCO WHISTLEBLOWER (voiceover translation): I feel it is impossible to fix before my death. We just don't have the technology to fix it. It currently doesn't exist. We just can't deal with the melted fuel.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Next month, the Government will start moving back 30,000 Fukushima evacuees into the no-go zone. It's all part of the Abe Government's plan to turn back on the country's 48 nuclear reactors by the middle of this year. They've been idle since the disaster. The Government acknowledges the risks, but says they can be managed with new safety standards.

HIRONORI NAKANISHI, JAPANESE GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN: I have to admit that there is no such kind of a nuclear plant with no - zero risk.

MATTHEW CARNEY: With no risk?



HIRONORI NAKANISHI: Yes, yes, yes. So I think we have to change our mind. We have to prepare.

MATTHEW CARNEY: But the push is meeting strong opposition. Now three former prime ministers have come out and slammed the plans in a country prone to earthquakes. Naoto Kan was the Prime Minister at the time of the nuclear disaster in 2011.

NAOTO KAN, FMR JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER, 2010-'11 (voiceover translation): They are trying to restart the nuclear reactors without learning the lessons of the March 11 accident. If the accident had spread just a little further, then 50 million people around Tokyo would've been evacuated for a long time and that would've put Japan in chaos for 20 to 30 years. The current government just doesn't understand the scale of the risk.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Former Prime Minister Kan says in the rush to turn the reactors back on, the Government is not putting people's safety first. No national evacuation plan has been developed.

NAOTO KAN (voiceover translation): It's becoming clear they are trying to restart the reactors with no regard for the people's safety.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Abe Government says it's in the best interests of the economy to make nuclear power once again the core source of Japan's energy. Relying on imported coal and gas is threatening the country's fragile economic recovery. But another former Prime Minister, Morihiro Hosokawa, says it's a risk not worth taking.

MORIHIRO HOSOKAWA, FMR JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER, 1993-'94 (voiceover translation): The causes of the accident haven't been investigated properly. Contaminated water is still leaking and compensation for victims hasn't been sorted out. I think in these circumstances, it is very irresponsible to turn the reactors back on.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Back at Futaba in the no-go zone, Okawa is meeting old friends he hasn't seen since the disaster. They know too they won't be coming back here to live.

SARAH FERGUSON: Matt Carney reporting. And TEPCO declined 7.30's invitation to respond to the allegations in that story.