Twelve years after tsunami and Fukushima disaster, Japan relies on nuclear power Ex-Greek finance minister Varoufakis beaten by hooded men

Twelve years after the meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, the country’s government is returning to nuclear power. The environmental group Greenpeace spoke on Saturday, the 12th anniversary of the catastrophe caused by a massive earthquake and devastating tsunami, of “complete disregard for those who suffered and are still suffering the consequences of the 2011 nuclear disaster”. The government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida not only wants to restart existing reactors, but also develop and build new next-generation reactors. Meanwhile, by summer at the latest, the state will begin controversially pumping out massive amounts of filtered cooling water from the destroyed reactors.

A gigantic tsunami hit the Pacific coast on March 11, 2011, flattening everything: cities, towns and vast agricultural areas sank under water and mud masses. The flood killed about 20,000 people. In Fukushima, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant suffered a super meltdown as a result, which became a symbol of the triple catastrophe around the world – even if none of the deaths are attributed to radiation. More than a decade later, the state no longer holds national commemorations. The reconstruction has made great progress, but the catastrophe threatens to be forgotten.

Thanks to massive decontamination work, radiation levels in most parts of Fukushima prefecture are now practically at the same level as in other countries, as Fukushima Governor Masao Uchibori stressed to foreign journalists. Thanks to the strictest controls, food that enters the market is also safe. About 27,000 of the initially 165,000 evacuees are still unable to return to their old living areas.

In addition, the destroyed reactors still have to be cooled with water, the amount of which is increasing every day due to infiltrating rainwater and groundwater. It has been stored in huge tanks, but now space is running out, according to operator Tepco. Therefore, it must be filtered and diluted before being discharged into the sea. According to Tepco and the International Atomic Energy Agency, this poses no risk, but the filtration system cannot filter out the tritium isotope. However, Japan states that tritium is harmless to humans in small amounts. However, local fishermen are against dumping more than a million cubic meters of water, which could take decades. (saw/sda/dpa)