ban – Uncanny Terrain

May 12, 2012May 12, 2012

Organic farmer father, nuclear engineer son

85-year-old Teruo Yasukawa has an organic farm on the edge of the nuclear exclusion zone.
Last year Yasukawa challenged city officials for the right to grow rice for personal consumption.
Yasukawa irrigates his farm with well water and fertilizes it with his cows' manure, thus avoiding new contamination. Most of his rice tested below 20 becquerels per kg last year.
Teruo's son Hiroshi Yasukawa was an engineer for TEPCO, the owner of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. His hat has TEPCO and GE logos.
Hiroshi Yasukawa has been exposed to more that 400 millisieverts of radiation.
Because of his high exposure level, he can no longer work at the power plant. He's been transferred to work on decontamination, but he's not optimistic about the prospects for success.
Hiroshi Yasukawa points toward the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant where he used to work, just beyond the horizon.
Hiroshi Yasukawa has had this geiger counter/watch for 10 years.

June 23, 2011July 2, 2011

Can’t sell rice, but has to grow it anyway

Takahashi was banned from selling rice grown on his land in Nishigo Village, Nishishirakawa-gun, Fukushima, due to soil contamination from the nuclear disaster. But he was also told that to receive compensation for the lost income, he must grow the rice. So he’s planting the crop, expecting it will never be eaten.