Japan Fukushima today. Exclusion zone in the vicinity of Fukushima (32 photos). Consequences of Fukushima in people's lives

More than two and a half years have passed since the disaster that occurred at the Japanese Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant due to an earthquake and tsunami, which claimed more than 16 thousand lives. Due to a radiation leak, the government was forced to evacuate the entire local population of about 160 thousand people and declare a 20-kilometer area around the nuclear power plant an exclusion zone. The Tokyo Energy Company is still working to collect contaminated water from the leak site. Former residents can visit their former homes, but cannot stay overnight. Let's see what the Fukushima exclusion zone looks like today, in photographs taken by Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj.

Lanterns burn on a street in the deserted village of Namie in Fukushima Prefecture on September 23, 2013. Before the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, more than 20 thousand people lived in Namie.

Storm waves rage through the city of Iwaki, south of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, on September 16, 2013. Almost all beaches in Fukushima Prefecture remain closed following the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

A boat brought by the tsunami lies in a field in the village of Namie, six kilometers from the damaged Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, September 22, 2013.

A swimming pool near a school in the tsunami-damaged village of Namie

The chimneys of the damaged Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant are visible on the horizon behind the polluted beach in the village of Namie

A rusty car lies on the coast

Monument to tsunami victims near an abandoned house

Damaged Buddha statue in the exclusion zone

The board shows the radiation level

Interior of a damaged elementary school

The streets of the deserted city of Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture are overgrown with bushes

A traffic light is burning near a damaged house

A woman stands near the grave of her relative in the tsunami-damaged area of ​​the village of Namie.

A vending machine brought by the tsunami stands in the middle of a rice field in the exclusion zone

A Tokyo Power Company worker mows grass in the deserted village of Namie.

Broken clocks, cobwebs and trash in an elementary school building

Kyoto firefighters pay tribute to tsunami victims

A grassy railway in the village of Namie

Thick grass grows around an abandoned house in the tsunami-damaged village of Namie.

Mieko Okubo, 59, tells how her father-in-law Fumio Okubo committed suicide in the room where it happened on September 18, 2013. Fumio committed suicide because he could not accept that he would have to evacuate and end his life's journey elsewhere.

Power lines of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant near the village of Okuma in Fukushima Prefecture

A table is set for visitors in a restaurant in the deserted village of Namie

Public address system in the school building

Words of encouragement written on a chalkboard in an elementary school

Piano in an abandoned house

View of the road from an abandoned house in the coastal village of Namie

Overgrown greenhouse on an abandoned farm

A dead cat lies among the trash in an abandoned house

Rubber gloves near the house

People go to the cemetery

In 2011, on March 11, Japan suffered its worst radiation accident at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, as a result of an earthquake and subsequent tsunami.

The center of this environmental disaster was located 70 km away. east of the island of Honshu. After a terrible earthquake of 9.1 points, a tsunami followed, which raised ocean waters 40 m high. This disaster horrified both the people of Japan and the whole world; the scale and consequences are simply terrifying.

Against the backdrop of this tragedy, people, even in distant Germany, bought dosimeters, gauze bandages and tried to “protect themselves” from the radiation consequences of the Fukushima accident. People were in a state of panic, and not only in Japan. Regarding the company itself, which owns the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, it suffered colossal losses, and the country itself lost the race among a number of other countries in the field of engineering.

Development of the situation

In the 1960s last century, Japan began to pay more and more attention to nuclear energy, thereby planning to gain independence from energy imports or at least reduce them. The country began to increase economic development, and the consequence was the construction of nuclear power plants. In 2011, there were 54 reactors producing electricity (21 power plants), they generated almost 1/3 of the country's energy. As it turned out in the 80s. In the twentieth century, there were situations that were kept secret; they became known only after the radiation accident in the land of the rising sun in 2011.

The construction of the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant dates back to 1967.

The first generator, designed and built by the American side, began to operate back in the spring of 1971. Over the next 8 years, five more power units were added.

In general, during the construction of nuclear power plants, all disasters were taken into account, including the earthquake that occurred in 2011. But on March 11, 2011, there were not only vibrations in the bowels of the earth; half an hour after the first shock, a tsunami struck.

It was the tsunami that followed almost immediately after the powerful earthquake and became the main cause of a catastrophe of such a huge scale, such gigantic destruction and maimed lives. The tsunami carried away everything in its path: be it cities, houses, trains, airports - everything.

FUKUSHIMA DISASTER

Tsunami, earthquake and human factor are the combination of reasons for the accident at the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant. This disaster was eventually recognized as the second largest in the history of mankind.

The territory that was allocated for the construction of a nuclear power plant was located on a cliff, namely 35 m above sea level, but after a series of earthworks the value dropped to 25 m. This location can be considered strange: “Why was it necessary to build a nuclear power plant near the water ? After all, their country is susceptible to disasters such as tsunamis.” What happened on that terrible day that changed the lives of not only people, but also Japan as a whole?

In fact, the nuclear power plant was protected from the tsunami by a special dam, the height of which was 5.7 meters; it was believed that this would be more than enough. On March 11, 2011, only three of the six power units were in working order. In reactors 4-6, fuel assemblies were replaced according to plan. As soon as the tremors became noticeable, the automatic protection system worked (this is provided for by the rules), that is, the operating power units stopped working and energy saving was suspended. However, it was restored with the help of backup diesel generators, designed specifically for such cases; they were located at the lower level of the Fukushima 1 nuclear power plant, and the reactors began to cool. And at this time, a wave 15-17 m high covered the nuclear power plant, breaking the dam: the territory of the nuclear power plant is flooded, including the lower levels, diesel generators stop working, and then the pumps that cooled the stopped power units stop - all this served to increase the pressure in the reactors , which they first tried to dump into a thermal shell, but after a complete collapse, into the atmosphere. At this point, hydrogen penetrates simultaneously with steam into the reactor, leading to radiation emission.

Over the next four days, the Fukushima 1 accident was accompanied by explosions: first in power unit 1, then 3 and ultimately in 2, resulting in the destruction of the reactor vessels. These explosions resulted in the release of higher levels of radiation from the station.

EMERGENCY ELIMINATION

There were 200 volunteer liquidators, but the main and terrible part was carried out by 50 of them; they were nicknamed “atomic samurai.”

Workers tried to somehow cope with or reduce the scale of the disaster; they sought to cool the three cores by pumping boric acid and sea water into them.

As attempts to eliminate the problem did not have the desired result, the level of radiation increased, the authorities decided to warn about the dangers of consuming water and food sources.

After some success, namely the slow release of radiation, on April 6, the nuclear plant management announced that the cracks were sealed, and later began pumping irradiated water into storage for proper treatment.

During the liquidation of the accident there were no casualties.

Evacuation

Explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. The authorities were afraid of radiation exposure of residents and therefore created a no-fly zone - thirty kilometers, the area was 20,000 km. around the station.

As a result, approximately 47,000 residents were evacuated. On April 12, 2011, the nuclear emergency severity level increased from 5 to 7 (the highest level since the Chernobyl accident in 1986).

Consequences of Fukushima

The radiation level exceeded the norm by 5 times, even after several months it remained high in the evacuation zone. The area of ​​the disaster was declared uninhabitable for more than one decade.

The accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan became a huge disaster for thousands of people, killing them. The station area and its surroundings are charged, including radiation elements found in drinking water, milk and many other products, in sea water and in soil. Radiation levels have also increased in some regions of the country.

The Fukushima nuclear power plant was officially closed in 2013, and work is still underway to eliminate the consequences of the accident.

As of 2017, the damage amounted to 189 billion US dollars. The company's shares fell by 80% and it needs to pay compensation to 80,000 people - that's about 130 billion. US dollars.

It will take Japan about 40 years to completely solve the problem with the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

They do not conduct excursions, and in general they prohibit anyone from appearing again within a radius of 20 km from the site of the tragedy. But, what should you do if you really want to look at what is now an abandoned nuclear power plant and city? In this case, there is a legal way to get to the accident site, which is what the author of this post took advantage of, who at his own peril and risk exposed himself to the danger of radioactive irradiation.

Japan is still recovering from the disaster of 2011, when a powerful tsunami battered the country’s shores, but the worst thing was that it caused an explosion at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, located right on the coast (why?). The disaster also destroyed communications, many of which have not been restored. Thus, the railway line for intercity trains was partially destroyed.

Life goes on and people need to move around the country. And outside the 30-kilometer radiation danger zone, this life is very active. A year ago, the transport company launched a bus route allowing passengers to transit directly through the Fukushima exclusion zone before continuing on a regular train.

The bus runs only once a day, in the morning from Tatsuta Station in Naraha City to Haranomachi Station in Minamisoma City. Both of them are located on the boundaries of the Zone. I bought a ticket and sat down at the front of the bus, right behind the driver. Besides me, there were five passengers. Not the most popular flight.

The bus exits onto highway number six. This is the main road, but it is blocked. Local cars and special vehicles can pass through, but they simply wouldn’t let me in with Yokohama license plates. They wave a green flag at the bus - go ahead.

I have two dosimeters with me, given to me by Leo Kaganov and his friend Yura Ilyin. The one on the right is more accurate; it filters out some “extra” frequencies. But most importantly, he can write a GPS route track with the radiation level at each specific point. These are Ilyin’s inventions, and such a device exists in a single copy in the world. A little later we will decipher the track and create a radiation map of Fukushima. The values, as in the picture, are the very beginning of the Zone.

The road is empty. Sometimes there are cars on it, but rarely. The bus goes without stops. I will say more: the driver has instructions not to stop under any circumstances. No matter what happens. An obstacle on the road needs to be rammed.

Everything is already abandoned. We pass empty towns and villages.

Someone left their car in the parking lot. And he will never take it away again. It has accumulated so much radiation that the driver will die a terrible death.

Sometimes the readings from the two devices almost coincided, sometimes they differed greatly. They measure in microsieverts per hour. This is already serious radiation.

There hasn't been much destruction in four years of desolation. But some houses are already in very poor condition.

Someone even managed to board up the windows against vandals.

But everything is surprisingly intact. No broken windows, no burned cars.

And remember Chernobyl, where literally everything was taken away, even what was strongly “fouling”.

Don't want a free car or free gas? It probably remained in the tanks.

The authorities, of course, took measures to stop them from wandering around. The area is large and they cannot control every corner.

Therefore, the streets “in depth” are blocked with such fences. They are easy enough to climb over.

You can go for a walk through empty supermarkets

It’s realistic to steal all these cars and sell them to ignorant suckers.

A car dealership with old American limousines, that's a lot of money!

And construction equipment for every taste. Radioactive, so what.

But there is one small nuance. If you are caught, you will be fined 100 million yen (that's 55 million rubles). And you will be caught. There are cameras and patrols everywhere.

Although, they probably tried. There are piles of abandoned equipment lying around. And their TVs are all old, not a single plasma!

They threw everything away indiscriminately. The evacuation was carried out immediately.

There are boards with radiation levels on the road. Increasing.

The dosimeter is screaming non-stop. I was distracted by photographing and did not take the highest reading - 6.5 microsieverts. This is a lethal dose if you spend any time here.

Security checkpoints are appearing more and more often.

We pass the turn to the Fukushima-1 station itself. The background is off the charts. I’m already physically feeling uneasy, and I’m waiting for us to pass this section.

The distance to the destroyed nuclear power plant is no more than 500 meters in a straight line. It is hidden behind the forest, only one pipe is visible.

And then he lets go. The background is decreasing, life is returning. Black bags stretch along the horizon; radioactive things are collected in them (as I understand it). The Japanese have plans to deactivate the territory as much as possible in order to at least partially restore life here.

And they succeed. They have already been able to disinfect several villages and one city. A month ago, residents were allowed to return, but so far they are in no hurry.

I admire the resilience of these people. They lost everything and suffered a major environmental and man-made disaster on their land. Thousands died, hundreds of thousands were injured. The entire nation was knocked off its feet: even those who lived far from the tsunami were in deep shock and mourning. And the Japanese stood up, dusted themselves off, and began to systematically and calmly restore life to normal.

A little over an hour later, our bus stopped near the Haranomachi train station in the center of Minamisoma.

The Tokyo District Court has ruled that Fukushima nuclear power plant operator TEPCO must pay 1.1 billion yen (approximately $10.1 million). The funds will be transferred as damages to 321 plaintiffs. This was reported by the Japanese newspaper Mainichi.

These people lived before the accident in the city of Minamisoma, which turned out to be in a 20-kilometer zone around the nuclear power plant, subject to resettlement after the accident.

Initially, the plaintiffs demanded 11 billion yen from TEPCO, but the court reduced the amount tenfold.

Interestingly, the plaintiffs are demanding compensation for psychological damage from the accident at the nuclear power plant. Material damage was compensated earlier, when most of the internally displaced persons received new houses in populated areas not affected by radiation emissions from the station, as well as “lift” money.

It is unlikely that this lawsuit against TEPCO will be the last. Most likely, other residents of resettled areas will also try to receive compensation for psychological damage. But how are things going in Fukushima Prefecture in reality? It turned out that this prefecture became known outside Japan mainly due to the accident at the nuclear power plant. In this regard, I remember the story of a Japanese diplomat I know. “Can you imagine,” he wondered, “I came to Moscow from Tokyo in the fall of 2011, and I had not been to Fukushima. But all the same, Russian acquaintances did not want to meet with me, they said, they say, you have a lot of radiation there, well, that’s it.” .

Six years have passed, but many in Russia still believe that Fukushima is something like Chernobyl.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry invited a group of five journalists to Fukushima Prefecture to show how things are going there. Journalists came from Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Russia. I must say that what we saw there was quite different from what we had imagined in advance.

Rice balls

The German journalist Soren Kittel, the most prudent of our group, brought with him a Geiger counter. We used it to measure everything - water, fruit, fish, rice, sake, Japanese. Of course, Satori Toyomoto, director of international relations at the Nuclear Incident Response Office of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan, told us on the first day that people walk around without protective masks, even in most of the territory of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, because background radiation is normal. Well, with the exception of two reactor halls and some other rooms. And near the station, according to METI, the background radiation is 0.02 millisieverts - this is approximately the same as an X-ray of a tooth, while the maximum permissible safe dose is considered to be 150 millisieverts.

But these were all words, and we wanted to see for ourselves, so for the first days Soren did not part with the Geiger counter. The Japanese looked at us with surprise - they themselves do not measure anything, leaving this to the authorities and the operator of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

We visited the so-called "antenna shop" - a store on Nihonbashi Street in downtown Tokyo. The store specializes in products from Fukushima Prefecture. In a prominent place are fruits, for which the affected region was famous before the accident. One apple costs about 70 rubles in Russian money, a piece of persimmon costs about 50 rubles. This is expensive even for Tokyo, especially considering Fukushima's reputation.

However, as store owner Juniya Tomita explained, the Japanese are very curious about everything unusual, so there is no shortage of buyers - about 1 thousand people on weekdays, about 1200 on weekends. The usual purchase amount is from 500 to 3000 yen (240 - 1700 rubles). Sake from Fukushima is especially popular. It has a very delicate taste and is considered the best in Japan.

“Are people afraid to buy food from you,” we asked Tomita-san. The fact is that a little earlier, several residents of Tokyo who have no connection with Fukushima answered us in approximately the same way, that if there is a choice between products from Fukushima and from other prefectures, they will choose the others. “Who knows what’s there,” said one housewife. “They say there’s no radiation, but go figure.”

When asked about customers’ concerns, the store owner replied that Fukushima rice really “has a negative reputation,” although in fact it is considered the best in Japan - it has a particularly pure taste and the stickiness is exactly what is needed for making sushi and onigiri rice balls. . Even the Imperial House of Japan buys rice from there.

“Show us this rice,” we demanded. Soren took out his counter. It showed the usual 0.2 microsieverts - that is, nothing, a natural background.

By the way, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture conducted a survey among the population - 70 percent of respondents would like to continue making buns from Fukushima rice.

Several decades before stabilization

“It’s okay,” we thought. “We’ll definitely find something in Fukushima Prefecture.”

The Prefectural Agricultural Technology Center is where the rest of the testing centers scattered throughout the prefecture are controlled. There are more than five hundred such centers in total. Above the boss's desk, the clock rose at 14.46 - at this time, on March 11, 2011, the main earthquake occurred. It is unlikely, of course, that he was the one who stopped the clock, but as a symbol and reminder such a sign works well.

“We have been checking every bag of rice since 2015,” said Kenji Kusano, deputy director of agricultural safety at the center. Approximately 10 million 30 kg bags per year.

“So, really, no radiation was found during all this time”?

“There were, of course, somewhere before the end of 2015 something was encountered, although very little. And since then - nothing at all,” answered Kusano-san.

More dangerous, he said, were mushrooms, game and seafood, especially in the first years after the disaster. In 2013-14, more than 11 percent of wild mushrooms, nearly 40 percent of game and 7 percent of seafood exceeded radiation standards. In 2016-17, 1.43 percent of mushrooms exceeding the limit for cesium-137 content were identified, and 0.5 percent of seafood were detected. With game, however, it is more difficult - more than 22 percent of wild animals killed by hunters managed to run through “dirty” places.

But we must also take into account the rigidity of Japanese regulations. If international CODEX standards allow 1000 Becquerels per kilogram (and in the USA even 1200), then in Japan - no more than 100 Becquerels per kilogram. At the same time, in reality, according to Kusano-san, they try to underestimate the level of radioactivity as much as possible. So, even if the content of radionuclides in a product is 50 Becquerels per kilogram, it is sent to quarantine.

In fact, experts have already found out in what places we can expect the appearance of radionuclides in products. In the first days after the accident, the wind blew to the northwest, and the radioactive trace in the diagrams looks like a tongue of flame stretched in the same direction. The length of the tongue is slightly more than 30 kilometers. On the spring 2012 summary maps it is red because the radioactive radiation at a height of 1 meter from the ground was 19 millisieverts. Six years later, the tongue shrank by several kilometers and turned yellow to 3.8 - 15 millisieverts.

According to METI's Satori Toyomoto, "final stabilization" will take 30-40 years.

The sand fish will warn

Of course, we were interested in fish and seafood - one of the main elements of Japanese cuisine. The catch off the northeastern coast of Honshu has always been particularly rich. The warm Kuroshio current and the cold Oyashio current meet here. The temperature difference attracts marine life, so this region is one of the three main fishing zones in the entire World Ocean. More precisely, it was like this before the accident at the nuclear power plant.

Now the fishing port of the city of Soma in the north of Fukushima Prefecture, located about a hundred kilometers north of the station, is practically empty, with one or two auctions a week, although among the buyers are representatives of 20 prefectures, as well as the metropolises of Tokyo and Osaka. But there were times - the ports of Fukushima Prefecture sold fish worth 6.6 billion yen per year, which is about 56 million dollars. The fish was also exported. The catch is now 8-10 percent compared to pre-tsunami times.

“We used to hold auctions every day, but after the accident a fishing ban was imposed,” says Tsuneo Fujita, director of the local fishing experimental station.

According to him, the largest release of radioactive water from a nuclear power plant into the sea occurred on April 1-6, 2011, when cesium -137 per 940 trillion Becquerels entered the ocean. But the radioactive elements were carried away by the current, and already in May 2011 the background dropped to 1 - 20 trillion Becquerels. This content remained for about 800 days. Currently, radioactivity in local waters is 0.01 Becquerel per liter. For comparison, before the accident it was 0.001 Becquerel.

There is a poster on the wall in the room with a schematic depiction of a fish with drawn signs of chemical elements and explanations. The same cesium-137 leaves the body, it turns out, in excrement.

According to Fujita-san, it is more likely to find radioactivity in large fish - they live longer. Also, the accumulation of isotopes depends on the type of marine life. For example, for some reason stingrays have more of them than squids or octopuses.

The fishing of ten species of fish is still prohibited. Perhaps permission for their control fishing will be obtained in the near future.

We just got to the fish auction in Soma. The entire pier was filled with basins of freshly caught fish. Red, green, yellow, silver, black - you name it. The auction hosts chanted the name of the next lot. One or two seconds - and the catch is sold.

“When are they tested for radioactivity?” - we asked the organizers.

“Everything has already been checked,” they replied.

We also asked whether they were afraid of new discharges of contaminated water from nuclear power plants into the sea. “We don’t know anything about this, and we believe that this should not happen,” the fishermen answered. “But if something happens, we will immediately know about it from the small translucent sand fish.” These fish, about five centimeters long, are found in shallow water and are considered one of the best snacks for beer in East Asia. They do not withstand radiation well and immediately die in contaminated water.

More than six months have already passed since the formation of a radiation contamination zone as a result of the accident at the nuclear units of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. After the accident and the formation of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, this is the second territory in human history from which the civilian population was evacuated due to an accident at an operating nuclear power plant. The population was evacuated from areas with a radius of 20 km around the destroyed nuclear power plant. 78,000 people were evacuated from this part of the contaminated zone. Let us note that in total, including the 30 km radius of temporary population resettlement, about 140,000 people were evacuated. The distribution of contamination and the formation of evacuation zones in the area of ​​the Fukushima nuclear power plant is shown in the figure (the indicated dashed isolines indicate the expected accumulated radiation doses - mSv; the eviction of the civilian population was carried out on this basis).

Borders of the exclusion zone of the Fukushima nuclear power plant - 1. And traces of the spread of the release.

Chronology of evacuation from the contaminated zone after the accident at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant

The evacuation of the population from the infection zone was carried out in several stages. The regime for carrying out evacuation measures took into account the territorial location relative to the epicenters of radiation emissions - in nearby areas (up to 3 km from the Fukushima nuclear power plant) evacuation was carried out almost immediately, in more remote areas the command was given to adhere to a regime that excluded citizens from staying outside their homes for a long time. As the situation worsened and the risk of radiation emissions increased, the Japanese government made decisions to increase evacuation zones around the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Below is the chronology of the evacuation:

• March 11 at 21.23 – the evacuation of the population from a zone with a radius of 3 km around the nuclear power plant and the sheltering of citizens in a 10 km zone were announced.
• March 12 at 5.44 - a decision was made to evacuate the population from a 10 km zone around the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, but by the evening it was decided to expand the evacuation territory.
• March 12 at 18.25 - it was decided to evacuate the population from the 20 km zone around the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. On the same day, the population was evacuated from the probable contamination zone of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant - 2 - the evacuation was carried out from a 10 km zone.
• March 15 – Local emergency response authorities carry out iodine prophylaxis during mandatory evacuation in cities, towns and villages within the 20-kilometer exclusion zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
• March 25 – voluntary resettlement from a 20-30 kilometer radius around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was announced.
• April 20, 2011– The Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Japan announced, recognized de facto, the existence of a 20 km exclusion zone around the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. This day should be considered the date of formation of the Fukushima exclusion zone.

Analogies and differences between the Japanese exclusion zone and Chernobyl

Despite the huge geographical, landscape, technical, socio-political differences in place and society, the formation of the FAPP exclusion zone is in many ways similar to those processes that took place in the Chernobyl region of the Ukrainian SSR in April - May 1986. (see also material about).
Amazingly, before the nuclear accident, the territories of the Fukushima province were famous for their high level of organic (ecological) farming and were world famous in the field of green tourism. The same can be said about the territories that found themselves in the zone of radiation contamination after the Chernobyl accident. The Chernobyl region, before the Chernobyl accident, was famous for its recreational opportunities - it was a famous place for recreation, fishing, hunting for Kiev residents, the elite of the Ukrainian intelligentsia and high-ranking officials.
Second– evacuation strategy – the order of eviction of territories depending on the distance from the source of radiation release is also similar to evacuation from the contaminated zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The city and village of Yanov, located in close proximity, were evacuated 36 hours after the Chernobyl accident. During the first week, settlements within the 10 km zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were forcibly evicted, and a week later, settlements located within the 30 km zone of compulsory resettlement...
Third similarity– after some time, the evacuees were allowed to return to their homes and take the most valuable and necessary things. Returns for property in the Chernobyl zone continued for several months and were of a disorderly nature. The evicted Japanese were allowed to return to the abandoned houses also a few months after the evacuation - they were allowed to take one package of things and documents of other valuables from the abandoned house.
Fourth- manifestations of looting. Unfortunately, facts of looting (robbery) took place both in and in the province of Fukushima. The scale of robberies in the Japanese exclusion zone is significantly lower than in the Chernobyl zone - mainly pharmacies, hospitals, and ATMs were robbed. Break-ins of abandoned dwellings were often discovered.
Fifth– presence of – people who refused to evacuate from the exclusion zone of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. These people are in the exclusion zone secretly, when asked by journalists about the reasons for refusing to evacuate, Japanese self-settlers (and these are overwhelmingly elderly people) say phrases that we have been hearing in the Chernobyl exclusion zone for 25 years - “ Why should we go away? We are old, and radiation has already caused us no harm. If we must die, let us die in our home «.

Features of the exclusion zone in Japan

Unfortunately, a detailed report on the organization of the evacuation of the population from the exclusion zone of the Fukushima nuclear power plant could not be found. Nevertheless, some conclusions can be drawn using materials from Japanese media.
The catastrophic consequences of the tsunami, which resulted in the death of thousands of people and the subsequent large-scale radioactive contamination, made search and rescue and evacuation activities extremely difficult. It is obvious that carrying out the eviction of tens of thousands of civilians in conditions of total destruction of infrastructure, shortage of energy, means of protection, etc. - a difficult task. This moment in the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant will be one of the most unpleasant, resonant in the descriptions of Japanese documentaries when the time comes to comprehend the disaster. What is it about?
The authorities failed to promptly search for and bury the people killed in the disaster. The photo below was taken in the exclusion zone of the Fukushima nuclear power plant by photographer Donald Weber.

Human corpse in the exclusion zone of the Fukushima nuclear power plant

This is a photograph of a human corpse found by a photojournalist during a visit to the exclusion zone of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant - 1. Author's website - http://donaldweber.com/2011/fukushima-exclusion-zone/
A sad fate also awaited the livestock abandoned by their owners during the evacuation. As far as we can judge now, the authorities banned the export of livestock and other farm animals, but at the same time, government services did not have the right to seize animals. Abandoned animals died of starvation, often in confinement. The authorities also did not have the right to kill or bury animals. As a result, a significant part of the livestock died from starvation or as a result of lack of human care.
Dramatic images of the consequences of such ill-conceived management of the exclusion zone can be seen in many photographs taken by journalists during a visit to the affected area of ​​the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Dead livestock in the exclusion zone of the Fukushima nuclear power plant

Abandoned farm in the exclusion zone of the Fukushima nuclear power plant

Abandoned ostrich farm in the exclusion zone of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant

Consequences of the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant

Radiation situation in the exclusion zone of the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant

A network of observations of the radiation situation has been organized in the FAPP exclusion zone. Gamma background levels are measured at 50 stationary points. Radionuclide contamination of air, soil and water is also assessed. The location of measurement points is shown on the map. The main radioactive pollutants in the FAPP exclusion zone are radioiodine (I131), cesium-134 (Cs134) and cesium-137 (Cs137).

map - radiation monitoring network in the FAPP exclusion zone

The radiation background values ​​in the exclusion zone of the Fukushima NPP - 1 are as follows:

• territory within a 3-km radius from the nuclear power plant - from 1900 to 7500 microR/hour;
• territory within a radius of 3-5 km of the exclusion zone from nuclear power plants - from 4300 to 3400 microR\hour;
• territory within a radius of 5 – 10 km zone from the nuclear power plant – from 50 to 1900 microR\hour;
• territory within a radius of 10 - 20 km zone from the nuclear power plant - from 50 to 2900 microR\hour;

It is difficult to talk about the average background values ​​in these areas of the Japanese exclusion zone, since there is a large patchiness of radiation contamination and the maximum levels are areas that fell under the northwestern trace of radioactive fallout, which completely crosses the exclusion zone and goes beyond its limits.
Current data on the radiation situation in the Fukushima nuclear power plant exclusion zone are published weekly on the website Monitoring information of environmental radioactivity level http://radioactivity.mext.go.jp/en/ – Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.
Data on the radiation situation at the Fukushima nuclear power plant itself can be found on the website of the operating organization Tokyo Electric Power Company's http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/
The specific activity of sea water near nuclear power plant reactors is also constantly monitored (several times a day and from different depths). According to the report for September 18, 2011 (sampling was carried out on September 16) - the radioactivity of the water is below that detected for iodine-131 - less than 4 Bq / l, cesium-134 - less than 6 Bq / l, cesium-137 - less than 9 Bq / l.