One area around the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant offers a dreary landscape with many patches of wasteland with weeds running wild and deserted buildings left to rust and decay.

Dump trucks rumble around countless large black bags piled up. This area around the plant, which straddles the towns of Okuma and Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, is used for the interim storage of polluted soil.

Last month, Norio Kimura, 57, used his smartphone for a live-streaming event for students from one corner of the area, where he once lived.

As he showed the desolate state of his former neighborhood, Kimura asked viewers some weighty questions.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has serious responsibility for the nuclear accident, he said, “but we consumers use the electricity” supplied by the company.

“Now, there is an accelerating movement toward restarting nuclear reactors," Kimura said. "What do you think about an affluent society built on the use of atomic energy?"

LOCAL COMMUNITIES STRUGGLE WITH ENDLESS FIGHT

Kimura’s second daughter, wife and father went missing amid the huge tsunami generated by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

As the nuclear accident hampered his search for them, Kimura was ordered to evacuate his home.

He has since been speaking about his excruciating experiences. Kimura is driven by a desire to inspire people to think about preparedness for major natural disasters and the background behind the nuclear accident as their own problems.

Meanwhile, the government is moving toward the renewed expansion of nuclear power generation. When asked his thoughts about the policy shift, Kimura said, “Society has not changed despite that disaster. I feel frustrated as my experiences have apparently not made any impact (on people’s views).”

Twelve years have passed since the Tohoku region was struck by the earthquake and tsunami, which triggered the reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima plant. In affected areas, it is clear that people are still struggling in an endless fight to rebuild their lives. 

The reactor building, where work is in progress to decommission the reactors, still shows walls destroyed by explosions and crushed steel frames. The government has estimated that the work to decommission all the reactors will take 30 to 40 years and cost 8 trillion yen ($59.26 billion). But many experts say it will take far more time and money.

The plant's site is clogged with huge steel tanks for storing tritium-tainted treated water. The government plans to start releasing such water into the sea in the spring or summer.

Related civil engineering works are proceeding apace. But concerns about harmful rumors have kept local fishermen opposed to the plan.

CLOCK BEING TURNED BACK

In surrounding areas, tenacious efforts are under way to revive the local communities. Even in areas designated as “difficult-to-return” zones, evacuation orders began to be lifted last summer for “reconstruction hubs” where radiation levels have declined sufficiently due to decontamination work.

In Futaba, one of the hardest-hit towns, public housing has been built and the municipal government has resumed operations. But living conditions in the town have not been sufficiently restored.

Only about 60 people live in the town, which once had a population of 7,000. Mayor Shiro Izawa says communities in the town, which cooperated with the government’s nuclear policy, “collapsed in a moment.”

“I want Japan to be a country that never fails to help victims of disasters,” Izawa said. 

The March 11 calamity has shown how a nuclear plant could cause colossal and irreparable damage once it spirals out of control. As the challenge of containing the nuclear crisis was so tough and complicated, it seemed likely that evacuation areas would have to be widely expanded.

After paying a tremendous cost for dealing with the aftermath of the accident, Japanese society reached a consensus on discarding the so-called “safety myth” concerning nuclear power and a radical change in energy policy.

The government announced a new policy of reducing the nation’s dependence on nuclear power “as much as possible” and introduced tighter nuclear safety regulations. A new highly independent nuclear safety watchdog, the Nuclear Regulation Authority, was created while a legal life span was imposed on reactors.

Asahi Shimbun editorials have been calling for a steady phasing out of nuclear power generation combined with expansion of the use of renewable energy sources.

The administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, however, has taken a series of steps to turn back the clock since last year. It has decided to “make a maximum use” of nuclear power and launched a campaign to rebuild reactors and extend the life span of reactors.

The Kishida administration plans to get the Diet to pass related bills during the current session. The NRA is following the lead of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which is championing the initiative to reinvigorate nuclear power generation.

The principle of separation between “promotion and regulation” is now at risk.

As rationales for its energy policy shift, the administration cites the current energy supply shortage and the need to push the nation toward a low-carbon future. These factors, however, do not justify blatant disregard for the predicament of areas affected by the nuclear disaster or lessons learned from Fukushima.

The government has yet to start tackling the challenge of finding a disposal site for contaminated soil that is stored in areas around the plant on an interim basis. Many communities hosting nuclear plants are struggling to develop plans for the emergency evacuations of local residents.

The scope of local governments required to develop such plans was widened after the accident.

There is no prospect for establishing a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste.

The administration’s move to promote a return to nuclear power without any national debate on the issue despite all these intractable problems is tantamount to allowing memories and lessons of the disaster to fade away.

DETERMINATION MADE IN AFTERMATH MUST REMAIN

The government’s new energy policy stresses the importance of “never forgetting to reflect on the accident and act on the lessons learned for placing the top priority on safety.”

But words and actions of top policymakers cast doubt on the government’s commitment to the pledge. Taro Aso, vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has said no one has died from the accident. There are still moves to belittle the risk and revive the safety myth.

Satoshi Ishibashi, a professor at the Tokyo University of Science who participated in the Diet’s committee to investigate the accident, says while many people talk about not forgetting the lessons, people involved in nuclear power and ordinary citizens have failed to make serious efforts to really understand the lessons and the root causes of the accident.

“Emotional words are used to avoid addressing real problems,” he said. 

Policymakers are postponing efforts to deal with the tough challenges involved as they avoid facing up to them. Politicians are failing to fulfill their responsibility to promote in-depth debate on related issues and build a consensus, while indifference and groundless optimism are spreading in society.

Has the social mindset that was bitterly criticized 12 years ago changed for the better?

At that time, the nation was determined to face up to Fukushima’s agony and chart the course of its future by remembering the experiences and lessons. There should be no attempt to shake this determination.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 11