Nuclear Disaster Site Four Years Later | Arkadiusz Podniesinski

Nuclear Disaster Site

Triggered by an earthquake and tsunami it has been four years since the meltdown at the nuclear power plant in Fukashima Japan, 120,000 people are still unable to return to their homes in the 20 km radius of the restricted zones.

The clean up efforts are in the final stages in the least contaminated zone (green zone) while they are just beginning in the moderately contaminated (orange zone) and no clean up is currently taking place in the most contaminated area or no-go zone. The current state of the Fukashima contamination site is has been documented by photographer Arkadinsz Podniesinski.

In the least contaminated green zone clean up consists of workers going house to house filling black bags with contaminated material, which have become a large part of the areas landscape. These bags are not being hauled away but rather being piled up in the surround area with people concerned that the bags will never be moved because of the cost of the clean up operation.

With the evacuation close to being lifted in the green zones the government is only offering 100,000 yen (850 dollars) in compensation to entice people to return to the decontaminated area. After a poll was taken as many as 65% of the evacuated have no intention of returning to the area once the evacuation is lifted due to distrust of authority partially due to the legal exposure rating being raised from 1 mSv to 20 mSv.

By Joshua L. Mohn