Fukushima: At least 10 million Japanese people still abandoned in high-radiation areas, says professor

Monday, March 25, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: Fukushima, radiation, Japanese population

(NaturalNews) The two-year anniversary of the infamous Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, in which a mega-earthquake and tsunami ravished one of Japan's largest nuclear power plants, recently took place with little media coverage (which is hardly surprising). But a prominent nuclear expert and professor from Japan says the disaster itself is far from over, and that at least 10 million Japanese people are still living in areas that should have been abandoned a long time ago due to high radiation levels.

During a recent presentation, Professor Hiroaki Koide, a master of nuclear engineering and specialist in radiation safety and control, gave a succinct outline of Japan's nuclear history, followed by a timeline of what actually occurred at Fukushima on that fateful day and beyond. In a roughly 15-minute video report available on YouTube, Prof. Koide explains in detail how the reactor cores melted, and spells out for his listeners just how serious the situation still is today, long after the mainstream media abandoned its coverage of the plant.

"There was about 100 tons of sintered uranium ceramic in the nuclear reactor core, and it did melt down," says Prof. Koide. "The part containing the reactor core is a pressure cooker made of steel that is called a 'nuclear reactor pressure vessel.' Steel melts at 1400 to 1500 degrees Celsius. The sintered uranium ceramic which had exceeded 2800 degrees Celsius fell onto the bottom of the pressure cooker."

Koide goes on to explain that the sintered uranium ceramic eventually broke through the bottom of the pressure vessel. This in turn led to the melted reactor core eventually falling onto the floor of the nuclear reactor containment vessel, which he says "seals off the radiation and is the last protective wall" preventing its release into the environment.

Fukushima released much higher levels of damaging radiation than Hiroshima atomic bomb

Many of the mainstream media reports issued after the Fukushima disaster took place tried to claim the disaster was far less damaging than other nuclear events throughout history, including the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, by the United States back in 1945. But according to Prof. Koide, the radiation released by Fukushima was, and continues to be, far more damaging, both for the environment and the world's oceans.

"I believe that the radioactive material cesium-137 was the most dangerous of the radioactive materials dispersed by the Hiroshima atomic bomb," says Prof. Koide. "The cesium-137 that was released into the atmosphere by Units 1 through 3 (of Fukushima) was 168 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, according to the Japanese government report to the IAEA, and an international organization which promotes nuclear power."

"I myself believe this is probably an underestimate, and two or three times that amount, that is, 400 to 500 times the amount of cesium-137 of the Hiroshima atomic bomb has already been dispersed into the atmosphere. At the same time, the radioactive materials that were dissolved in water were flowing into the ground, then out into the ocean. I believe almost the same amount of radioactive materials released into the air have probably flowed into the ocean."

Ten million people currently living in dangerous, highly-radioactive regions of Japan

But it gets even worse. According to Prof. Koide, the Japanese government knows it cannot safely evacuate everyone truly being impacted by the ongoing release of radiation at Fukushima. So instead of observing its own laws about radiation maximums, the Japanese government has simply adjusted its existing contamination thresholds to higher levels, which has resulted in the abandoning of millions of people living in regions like Tohoku and Kanto, which are still highly contaminated.

"As of today, about 10 million people have been left in areas that should have been designated radiation controlled areas, and they are exposed to continual radiation every day," says Prof. Koide

Be sure to watch Prof. Koide's entire presentation on Fukushima here: http://youtu.be/JwGl6K9t2oI