nuclear accidents

I can’t believe it’s already three years since the Fukushima disaster struck. Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes and had to rebuild their lives elsewhere, because of the high levels of radiaition. Japanese photographer Noriko Hayashi documents the struggle of some of the victims, who feel the government has abandoned them.

Jacob Namminga, one of our radiation safety advisors, spoke to Brian Fitzgerald at our international office, about the radiation monitoring that began on Saturday March 26, in a rural area of Japan to the north west of the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The trip's aim was to asses the true extent of radiation risks to the local population, which has reported radiation levels of up to ten micro sieverts per hour in Iitate village, 20km beyond the official evacuation zone - levels high enough to require evacuation. As told to Brian, here are Jacob's reflections on the trip.

Stunning images of climate change protests from North and South America, Europe and Asia make up the core of this month's contributions. It's been a busy time for reminding governments what they should already know by now - that we have to wean ourselves of climate-wrecking fossil fuels as soon as possible, and the business as usual is not an option.

Reuters has a new video report on the impacts of earthquake-struck Japan's recent nuclear accident, which means Kawashaki nuclear plant will be closed indefinitely:

Japan's killer earthquake left its biggest nuclear power company facing financial losses, supply questions, and demands for greater safety.

The video's here (there's an advert before the Reuters report starts).

After the conflicting reports about last week's earthquake in Japan, a Greenpeace team of nuclear and radiation experts headed over to Japan to check radiation levels on the ground.

Happily, most places the team checked around the plant didn't show signs of increased radioactivity, but they had a couple of bizarre moments along the way. Their diaries are on our international site.

On Monday, an earthquake hit Kashiwazaki in north-western Japan, killing nine people and injuring hundreds more. Already a disaster for the citizens of Kashiwazaki, thousands of whom are now living in shelters, things could have been much, much worse.

Kawashaki is the location of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant – the site of seven nuclear reactors. At first it was thought that the 6.8 magnitude earthquake had just caused a fire at the plant and Tepco – the nuclear company - initially said no radioactivity was released. "No harm" was done, said a spokesperson.

Then we were told that in fact there had been a leak, but it was only 1.5 gallons of radioactive water. On Tuesday, it emerged that just a smidgen more radioactive water might have leaked than 1.5 gallons. About 243 times more. And the water was 50 times more radioactive than had been stated.

London rapper Example doesn't just take his music to the edge - he also takes it to deserted, radioactively contaminated post-nuclear zones. Now he's released a documentary about his journey to Chernobyl, explaining why he thinks the future shouldn't be nuclear.

"I don't think anyone who's been here can be for nuclear power," says rapper Example, looking around at empty cots and babies' gas masks in a disintegrating schoolroom near Chernobyl.