Former Mayor: Fukushima radiation killing our children, authorities hiding truth

Paul Lawrance
Activist Post

Katsutaka Idogawa, the former mayor of Futaba, a town close to Fukushima, is warning Japan that radiation contamination is harming children inside the country and that the government is hiding the truth of the situation.

“I talk to local authorities in different places in Fukushima but no one will listen to me,” Idogawa told RT. “They believe what the government says.”

“They are dying of heart conditions, asthma, leukemia, thyroid complications…lots of kids are extremely exhausted after school. Others are simply unable to attend PE (physical education) classes but the authorities are still hiding the truth from us.”

Idogawa claims that Japan’s government has started programs to move people into towns inside the Fukushima prefecture despite dangers of radiation, reports RT. He warns that the nearly two million people currently residing inside the prefecture are suffering from “all sorts of medical issues”.

The damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant has long been reported out of control since cleanup teams have started their efforts to secure the plant.

TEPCO’s Akira Ono, the manager of the Fukushima plant, made a statement last week that only furthers the notion that the plant will not be cleaned up any time soon.

“It’s embarrassing to admit, but there are certain parts of the site where we don’t have full control,” Ono told reporters touring the plant this week, reported Reuters.

TEPCO has struggled to contain leaks of radioactive water at the plant. Government numbers from late last year estimate that 300 tonnes of radioactive groundwater is leaking every day into the plant’s harbor.

Water must be pumped over the facility’s reactors in order to keep them from overheating. This process creates a huge amount of water that must be stored on site.

In February TEPCO failed to keep 100 tonnes of highly radioactive water inside a storage tank causing it to seep into the ground.

According to a TEPCO spokesman that water contained 230 million becquerels per liter of radioactive isotopes.

Paul Lawrance writes for Eyes Open Report, where this article first appeared.