Japan’s agricultural products and wild meats are still testing positive for radiation, eight years on.

Eight Years After the Meltdown

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO) owns the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and has been under fire for almost a decade now because of the magnitude of the nuclear disaster. Today, TEPCO has a dedicated page on its website that states that it is doing everything it can with regard to decommissioning work. It states that it will take 30-40 years to fully decommission the reactors, and it has released 100,000 pieces of radiation data annually.

Well and good, but TEPCO’s activities definitely cast a shadow on what should be decommissioning work aimed at keeping everyone safe from radiation, not just the Japanese people. TEPCO has been cooling down the melted reactors with treated seawater all these years, and that radioactive water, so far, has been languishing in sealed vats stored around TEPCO’s property.

Currently, TEPCO is holding in its possession well over one million tons of radioactive water that contain tritium, a radioactive isotope from hydrogen. The current state of the science is unable to remove this isotope from water, making the water dangerous if released. In addition to tritium, TEPCO admits that there are also other radioactive compounds in the water as well.

The Japanese government has taken no action on the suggestion of releasing the radioactive water to the ocean, which so far has enraged Japanese fishermen and has also garnered the scrutiny of nuclear organizations and heads of state around Japan. The Japanese government is being pressured to make a decision long before the upcoming Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.

In September 19, a Tokyo district court acquitted three former TEPCO executives from criminal prosecution arising from the nuclear accident. This comes after the initial judicial review carried out in 2015 by ordinary citizens that TEPCO executives should be put on trial for what happened.

The judicial review forced Japanese prosecutors to proceed with the litigation of the executives. Two years after, a court ordered the company to pay 38.6 million yen, or $493,000 to affected residents who fled their homes that happened to be around the widened evacuation zone, which grew to 20 kilometers within the accident year.

The TEPCO executives pleaded not guilty to the charge of professional negligence resulting in death and injury. One year later, another ruling ordered TEPCO to pay $10 million in fresh damages to the plaintiffs of the criminal case, which was far higher than what the plaintiff had initially offered to the victims.