by Ban Hideyuki, CNIC Co-Director<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On May 11, 2011, the\nauthor set out to investigate radiation dose rates in the environment. At that\ntime, we had chosen to conduct an investigation starting from the North Health Offices\nin Fukushima City and driving toward Iwaki City along routes 114, 288 and 399. Hoping\nto take measurements over as wide a range as possible, we chose to drive along\nthese routes within a 20-km radius from the Fukushima nuclear power plants (Daiichi\nand Daini NPPs). We proceeded in the rain, taking measurements every three\nkilometers. We recorded the GPS data for use the following year. Along the way,\nhowever, we had gotten out of GPS range and had been unable to record the data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next year we\nattempted the same thing, taking measurements every three kilometers, but were\nunable to identify the same points as before, so we relied only on landmarks.\nIn the third year, gates had been erected blocking access to the \u201careas where\nit is expected that residents will face difficulties in returning for a long\ntime,\u201d so we became unable to take measurements in the heavily contaminated\nTsushima district. We took quite lengthy detours to continue our measurements. In\n2018, Route 114 was fully reopened, but access to side roads was not allowed.\nOn August 10 of this year, when four of us including Shizuri Kimiko of the Geological\nDisposal Research Group went out to take measurements, the major routes had all\nbeen reopened, so we were able to start taking measurements in the schoolyard\nof Tsushima Junior High School again for the first time in six years. In 2012,\nthe dose there was 2.86 microsieverts per hour (\u03bcSv\/h), but this year it had\ndecreased to 0.35\u03bcSv\/h. This was one of the places where decontamination waste\nhad been stored. The flexible container bags were no longer there, and the\nschoolyard was overgrown with weeds. In the bushes to the side of the\nschoolyard, where decontamination looked unlikely to have been performed, the\ndose rate rose to as high as 1.5\u03bcSv\/h. In Taikogi, Namie Town along Route 399,\nwhich we had likewise been unable to access, we had measured 4.92\u03bcSv\/h in 2012,\nand that had fallen to 1.25\u03bcSv\/h this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With shortcomings from\nthe start, we were unable to obtain strict measurements, but we think what we\nwere able to obtain will be useful in getting a rough idea of trends. The\nenvironmental radiation dose rate in Fukushima before the accident was 0.05\n\u03bcSv\/h or less, so comparatively high radiation levels persist. There were no\nsigns of people in the houses along the investigated routes in 2011 and 2012,\nand no birds singing. There was nothing but an eerie silence. But as time has\npassed, the birds have returned and new houses can be seen as rebuilding\nproceeds. Little by little, signs of people are increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the second day we met\nphotographer Hida Shinshu, who led us to where he had found plants with\nabnormalities. This was at the intersection of routes 49 and 114 in Hirusone,\nMinamisoma City, where he had also led us to two years previously. Several fir\ntrees there were stunted in mid-growth, failing to continue growing upward.\nAlso, their needles had simply grown straight, not splitting into three, as\nusual. Hida noted that he had never witnessed such abnormalities before. We\nalso saw a number of pine trees that had completely withered on the mountain\nslopes by Route 114. Hida explained that this was different from the way pine\ntrees wither when attacked by pine bark beetles. These abnormalities may have\nresulted from the effects of radiation. Large-scale investigations would\nprobably be needed to elucidate a causal relationship. However, we felt it\nextremely important that people bring forth such examples so they can be compiled.
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by Ban Hideyuki, CNIC Co-Director On May 11, 2011, the author set out to investigate radiation dose rates in the environment. At that time, we had chosen to conduct an investigation starting from the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,79,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accident","category-contamination","category-fukushima"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4684,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4683\/revisions\/4684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnic.jp\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}