Feature story - June 9, 2011
Greenpeace International Executive Director Dr Kumi Naidoo today unveiled a sample of contaminated soil from a Fukushima playground at a Tokyo press conference. He criticised the Japanese government’s response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis, and its ongoing failure to protect the health and welfare of its people.
Radiation Test in Fukushima Playgrounds
Children walk along a road which had earlier been assessed by a Greenpeace team for radioactive contamination. The team found it to hold high, unsafe levels of the contamination. The city of Fukushima has been contaminated by radioactive fallout from the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
© Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Greenpeace
"On Tuesday I had the privilege of meeting with both teachers and school children in Fukushima. Looking at innocent faces of the children, I found it difficult to contemplate the dangerously high levels of radiation they are being exposed to on a daily basis", said Dr Naidoo.
"While the Japanese government has made some efforts at decontamination, it is not nearly enough. These are real people we are dealing with here, not statistics."
“We plan on taking this contaminated soil to Japan’s government, to demand commitment to realistic protection of those most vulnerable to radiation. The pregnant woman and children of Fukushima are the future of this country. They are innocent victims of Japan’s insistence on using nuclear energy and there is a moral imperative for them to be evacuated from high-risk areas until proper decontamination is carried out".
“While authorities have admitted this week that the Fukushima crisis is far worse than previously claimed by TEPCO, with several melt-throughs and a doubling of the estimated amount of radiation released, we are not seeing any escalation in their plans to protect the public. What we need here is greater protection from exposure to schoolchildren, and far less protection and more exposure of TEPCO and the rest of nuclear industry”.
“Nuclear energy is never safe, never cheap, and the Fukushima disaster will leave Japan with an infamous legacy - the way people used to talk about Chernobyl they will today talk about Fukushima. Having seen the after affects of Chernobyl I am here to implore the Japanese government to protect its people and learn from 50 years of mistakes of nuclear energy."
“Japan has begun to look away from nuclear and towards renewable technology, what is needed now is strong commitment and investment in this vision, to protect the future for all our children, and leave them a world in which they can meet their energy needs without resorting to nuclear power.”