millisievert – 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 22, 2011July 2, 2011

Fukushima pride is strong close to evacuation zone

Ohashi owns a successful baked goods company in Fukushima City. He has used grains from organic farmers in Fukushima Prefecture, but now he may have to look elsewhere. Even if the grains are uncontaminated, the stigma against Fukushima produce would likely hurt sales. Ohashi’s health is frail but he has no intention to leave despite typical background radiation here of 1 microsievert/hour. He says the disaster has strengthened local pride, and people here are learning to living with radiation.
A pair of comedians bartend at the Showtime bar in Fukushima City. I sat down with my camera gear and they kept calling me Michael Moore (pronounced mo-ah).
Sugiuchi was banned from selling his crops due to high contamination levels found near his farm in Haramachi. Now he’s researching soil remediation.
Mrs. Sugiuchi watches one of their greenhouses in Haramachi being tested for radiation.
.7 millirems (7 microsieverts) per hour on the highway in Iitatemura.
4.1 millirems/hour (14,350 counts per minute or 41 microsieverts/hour) on a mountain road in Iitatemura. The town is mostly abandoned but on Sunday there were some people around. They apparently came back to check on their property.
The edge of the evacuation zone in Iitatemura.