13 years have passed

It's 13th anniversary today of the big earthquake in Tohoku and the consequent nuclear power plant accident in Fukushima.

In Fukushima, the damage from the earthquake is most prominent and long lasting. Of course, it is mainly due to the nuclear power plant accident. More than 23K people are still evacuated. 2343 people are enrolled in the earthquake related death statistics. Those numbers are possible lowest since more people must have been excluded in the statistics. Almost half of the people in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant are high risked for PTSD due to the experience of earthquake and nuclear power plant accident, a psychiatrist says.

Reconstruction from the disater has been a major agenda and propaganda in the politics. But it is now being forgotten or has become a ritual they recall only on this day every year. Decommissioning of the disastered nuclear power reactors should have been progressed much more. They should have started taking out the debris penetrated through the pressure vessels a couple of years ago according the road map to decommission. They have stopped renewing/publishing the road map. The destroyed nuclear power reactors are left untouchable while producing tens of tons of polluted water everyday. 

The nucler power plant accidents are still going on far from the decommisioning process and making the people suffer psychologically from it. In the beginning of this post, I have called today as the anniversary. But it was wrong. The disaster is still going on. We must remember it as a disaster still going on for the people in the area. 

Thinking things in this way, I have spent the hours in the afternoon pulling the weeds in the garden recalling of the day of the earthquake and the following nuclear power plant accident.