As 2020 is the year the Olympics and Paralympics come to Japan, this is an exciting time for sports and for the people of Japan. Amidst all the excitement however, there is the ongoing nuclear crisis in Fukushima prefecture. Labeled as the ‘Reconstruction Olympics’, Prime Minister Abe in 2013 declared that the situation at Fukushima Daiichi was under control. Seven years later there still remains a nuclear emergency at the nuclear plant and surrounding areas. In addition to the enormous challenges of how to safely manage over 1 million tonnes of contaminated water at the site and as much as 880 tonnes of molten nuclear fuel for which there is no credible solution, there remain wider issues regarding radioactive contamination of the environment, its effect on workers and Fukushima citizens, including evacuees and their human rights.
These issues were the subject of a 28 January 2020 documentary broadcast by the U.S. network HBO as an investigative report by the program ‘Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel ’, the U.S.’s most-honored sports journalism series (with 33 Sports Emmy Awards, including 19 for Outstanding Sports Journalism) during the opening episode of its 26th season.
What does it mean to host the Olympics and Paralympics in the context of an ongoing nuclear disaster, the effects of which are still being felt by tens of thousands of Japanese citizens? What does it tell about the Japanese government and its commitment to respecting the values of transparency and the human rights of its citizens? These are some of the important questions raised by HBO and they warrant careful consideration in the months leading up to this year’s summer games.
Greenpeace Japan applauds Olympic values and spirit, while recognizing that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has the responsibility to ensure the Olympic Games have a minimum impact on the environment and leave a positive legacy for those hosting the Games. The IOC has an opportunity to do this in a way that fulfills the ideals of the environment as the third pillar of Olympism – sustainability – by making the Games a showcase for environmental solutions. Simultaneously, we recognize that hosting the Olympics and Paralympics requires the Japanese Government to ensure absolute safety for athletes, international visitors, and the Japanese public alike.
The decision to host two sporting events in Fukushima city raises genuine and important questions over radiation risks. The route of the Olympic Torch relay in all the municipalities of Fukushima prefecture includes the districts of Iitate, Namie, and Okuma where Greenpeace Japan’s Nuclear Monitoring & Radiation Protection Team has discovered radioactive hotspots, both in the open areas as well as in the remaining radiation exclusion zones, that remain too high even by revised governmental standards. What does all this mean for the hosting of Olympic events, including for athletes and visitors?
By conducting extensive radiation investigations, Greenpeace Japan attempts to explain the complex radiological environment, where nothing is straightforward, and where judging precise risks to health at the individual level is near impossible. In an effort to better understand and explain the radiological situation in parts of Fukushima, as well as the ongoing issues of human rights for both Fukushima citizens and decontamination workers, Greenpeace Japan will be publishing its latest radiation survey results in early March 2020.
Shaun Burnie is Senior Nuclear Specialist at Greenpeace Germany.
Discussion
Please see world wide, Air dosen rate is quite high all over the world. it's not issue only Fukushima. All elements of GreenPeace, they must act as one. Fragment action is feckless.
US’s official stance now seems to unequivocally support Japan’s irresponsible and cheap solution of dumping nuclear waste water - in return for their loyalty against their competitor in asia. I just want to ask why then US has banned seafood imports from Japan. These two countries are the cartels!
Radioactive contamination, Covid-19, Japan's arrogant Abe-Suga government try to make risk against health or lives look like smaller than actuality.
Just became official Japan to dump 1m tonnes radioactive water into our oceans. It is a criminal action perpetrated against all life forms on this planet and legal action must be taken to prevent this. The Olympic games should be taken from them and severe sanctions imposed upon them if they proceed with this action. There are other solutions available to them which should be considered.
No Country Leaders Tell Their People’s What is The Truth They DO what is Best for Financial Gain for the Country & NOT FOR THE PEOPLE GREED GREED & MORE GREED They are BREAKING OUR HEARTS ♥️ 💔💔🆘😡🤮🖤🖤
If sanity would dominate the Olympics would not be held in Japan because the Fukushima situation is extremely dangerous, precarious, and NOT under control. The fact that the Olympics will be held in Japan only corroborates other facts about the insanity of ruling world governments. As an example, the reality is that the true facts on radiation toxicity have been carefully obfuscated for ages by all nations profiteering handsomely from nuclear energy, medical radiation, and nuclear weaponry, such as the US, France, Russia, India, or Japan. The conventional medical-dental industries and the nuclear-military industries (=the radiation cartel) have been, for well over half a century , perpetually lying about, and minimizing, the true toxicity of ionizing radiation (e.g resorting to false sneaky comparisons between radiation exposure from sunlight or an airplane flight to a dental or medical x-ray or the exposure to nuclear fallout, etc. to deliberately deceive the unwitting public) to avoid culpability for the huge number of deaths and injuries that they're responsible for (discussed and well referenced in the book "The Mammogram Myth" by Rolf Hefti). The official accounts on the Chernobyl debacle, as an example, range from a few dozen to a few hundred people who ended up dead while independent analyses (conducted by people NOT tied to the corrupt corporate mainstream "science" syndicate) estimated the death toll in the tens to hundreds of thousands (in some cases approaching a million) of deceased people (and the radiation cartel-induced massacre is continuing). The distortions and disinformation about the alleged safety of (low dose) radiation or the purported lack of much harm to people, whether from medical x-rays or fallout from disaster sites such as Chernobyl or Fukushima, continues to this day. The real danger and damage caused by Chernobyl and Fukushima are much higher than the officialdom wants the public to believe. You can recognize the global grip of this powerful big money cartel by the ominous absence in the reporting of the allied corporate mass media (the mainstream fake news media) about the ongoing severe disaster at Fukushima, or by any of the solid proofs about the frauds this criminal evil cartel is involved in. You can find out more about that from Dr. Chris Busby, Dr. Helen Caldicott and others who are not tied to the corrupt radiation cartel.