Clip Reel – Mrs Kanno's Story
Fukushima
SEPTEMBER, 2017
LOCATION: NAMIE & IITATE – FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN
NATURAL SOUND
DURATION: 24.21min
SOURCE: GREENPEACE
ACCESS ALL, NO RESTRICTIONS. ALL MATERIAL GREENPEACE COPYRIGHT.
SUMMARY –
Nearly seven years after the triple reactor meltdown, this unique nuclear crisis is still underway.
Greenpeace is conducing radiation surveys in the exclusion zone of Namie, which lies north and
north west of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. This video is the story of Mrs Kanno, an
evacuee from Tsushima in the exclusion zone of Namie.
Mrs Kanno was a social worker in Futaba less than 10 km from the nuclear plant. Eventually
making her way home after the devastating earthquake, over the next few days thousands of people
were evacuated to her home district of Tsushima. Families moved into her home. But soon they
were warned by men in gas masks and protective clothing to get out immediately. The radioactive
fallout from the nuclear plant, about 32 km away, had deposited high levels of contamination in this
mountainous area of Namie.
Mrs Kanno now lives in western Japan many hundreds of kilometers from her home in Fukushima.
While she is a victim of nuclear power, she is no passive observer but a women activist determined
to tell her story. She campaigns across the Kansai region against nuclear power and for renewable
energy. Like thousands of other evacuees, she has joined lawsuits filed against the Tokyo Electric
Power Company, and the government. Already found guilty in multiple court proceedings of being
criminally negligent in failing to take measures to prevent the meltdown, TEPCO and the
government can expect many more rulings against them – including this March.
Measuring thousands of points around homes, forests and farmland, its clear that this is an area that
should not be opened to the public for many years. Yet the government opened a main artery, route
114, while Greenpeace were working in Namie. One consequence is that people are stopping off
and visiting areas high in radiation. At one of Ms Kanno’s friends house, radiation hot spots were
over 11 microsieverts at 1 meter, and 137 microsieverts at 10 centimeters. Thousands of time above
the background level before the nuclear accident. Two people were working 10 meters away with
no dosimeters or protective clothing. Mrs Kanno and our radiation specialists explained the levels
of contamination and why it was necessary to take precautions. In other areas Greenpeace
measurements would lead to an annual dose of 101 mSv, more than one hundred times higher than
the international safety limit.
The results of Greenpeace 2017 survey in Namie are that radiation levels will remain a long term
risks for human health for many decades – mid century at least in the open areas of Namie, and in
the exclusion zone much longer into next century.
The Japanese government has approved plans to begin decontamination in May 2018 in Tsushima
with the aim of opening it for people to live - why ? The government is desperate to restart nuclear
reactors – while today only 3 are operating. Having areas of Japan closed to human habitation
because of radioactive contamination is a major obstacle to the governments ambitions.
On the 16th of March 2018 Mrs Kanno and other evacuees and their lawyers will attend the Tokyo
high court for a ruling on Fukushima against TEPCO and the Government.
SHOTLIST
00.00-00.11 – arriving at TEPCO checkpoint for entry into exclusion zone – Namie
00.12-00.35 – Mrs Kanno at TEPCO checkpoint – departing
00.36-01.01 – Shots of Mrs Kanno Greenpeace survey vehicle driving along route 114 to her
evacuated home
01.02-01.16 – Aerial shots of Mrs Kanno vehicle
01.17-02.13 – Arriving at entrance to home, checking for radiation before leaving vehicle, putting
on protective Tivex suit
02.14-02.28 – Shrine and entrance evacuated home
02.29-03.42 – Walki