¹ An initial version of this article entitled ‘Limits in the Modern Episteme: Understanding Fukushima through visualising radioactivity’ was presented at the Japanese Studies Association of Australia conference in July 2013.

² See Gavan McCormack, The emptiness of Japanese affluence, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2001; and Jeff Kingston, Japan's quiet transformation: social change and civil society in 21st Century Japan, London and New York: Routlegecurzon, 2004, pp. 122-156.

³ The proprietor sued TEPCO for losses as the contamination led to its closure (45 kms from the Fukushima NPP). The TEPCO lawyers (Nagashima, Ohno and Tsunematsu) argued that they could not be held liable for that which was not their property. The court upheld the defence. The court also stated that golf course operations could be resumed because radiation levels on average were below 3.8 uSv/h, the yardstick for schoolyards set in April 2011. Iwata Tomohiro, ‘TEPCO: Radioactive substances belong to landowners, not us’, Asahi Shimbun Weekly AERA, 24 November 2011, here.

⁴ See David Pacchioli, ‘Absurd: Intentionally dumping Fukushima nuclear material into ocean from land “is not considered dumping” — Allowed under international law?’, Seafood Safety and Policy, Oceanus, WHOI, Vol. 50, No. 1, Spring 2013, 14 May, 2013.

⁵ About 10 billion yen of the 25 trillion yen pledged for disaster recovery over several years has been reserved to offset costs for utility companies that were ordered to shut nuclear power plants in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster. See ‘Funds from disaster relief budget given to nuclear operators’,

⁶ John Holifena, ‘Japan's PM Abe to push nuclear sales in Europe’, JDP, 14 May 2013, http://japandailypress.com/japans-pm-abe-to-push-nuclear-technology-sales-in-europe-1428791/.

⁷ Uchiyama Osamu, ‘Toshiba set to buy British nuclear power firm for 10 billion yen,’ Asahi Shimbun, 6 October 2013, here.

⁸ ‘Japan's PM Abe: “Contaminated Water Problem Will Be Gone by 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo”,’ Jiji Tsushin, 4 September 2013, here.

⁹ See PSR, Nuclear Power and France: Setting the Record Straight’, 16 September 2008, here, Jeff McMahon, ‘French System for Cleaning Fuushima Water Blamed for Leukemia, Polluted Beaches in Europe’, 25 April 2011, here.

¹¹ Mari Yamaguchi, ‘Overflowing tank cause of new leak at Fukushima, Associated Press, 3 October 2013, here.

¹² See Miguel Quintana, ‘Radiation Decontamination in Fukushima: a critical perspective from the ground’, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 13, No 3, March 26, 2012 - See more here.

¹³ ‘Fish caught off the Fukushima coast to hit the market’, 26 September 2013, here; ‘Yoshinoya to grow rice and vegetables in Fukushima,’ 1 October 2013, here.

¹⁴ For example, Kameda Medical Institute purchased a system for cancer treatment from Israel's IceCure Medical Inc., 2 October 2013, ‘Innovative Israeli Cancer Treatment to be Tested in Japan’, here.

¹⁵ ‘White Paper: Fukushima Health Survey Occupies Medical and Legal Conundrum’, Simply Info, 8 November 2012, here.

¹⁶ Winifred Bird, ‘Fukushima nuclear cleanup could create its own environmental disaster: Decontaminating the Fukushima region to remove radioactive particles will not be possible without removing large amounts of soil, leaves and plants,’ The Guardian, 9 January 2012, here. The radiation safety standard of 100mSvy cited in this article are contested.

¹⁷ Robert Alvarez, ‘Nuclear Tuna and NPR's Trivialization’, Institute for Policy Studies, 31 May 2012, here. See also, ‘Fukushima radiation could be ocean risk’, 26 January 2012, here.

¹⁸ Alexey Yablokov, Vassily Nesterenko and Alexei Nesterenko, Mycle Schneider, Hirose Takashi, Koide Hiroaki, Helen Caldicott, Arnie Gundersen and Murata Mitsuhei among others, have argued that radiation and other problems are worse than either TEPCO or the Japanese government have admitted. The National Regulation Authority commissioner Fuketa Toyoshi also wondered if TEPCO's data could be relied upon at all. See Matt McGrath, ‘Fukushima leak is ‘much worse than we were led to believe’, 22 August 2013, here; Jason Motlagh, ‘The News From Fukushima Just Gets Worse, and the Japanese Public Wants Answers’, 22 August 2013, here.

¹⁹ Satoh C., Kodaira M., ‘Effects of Radiation on Children,’ Nature, 1996, 383: 226; Nakamura N., ‘Genetic Effects of Radiation in Atomic- bomb Survivors and Their Children: Past, Present and Future,’ Journal of Radiation Research, 2006, 47 (Supplement): B67-B73.

²⁰ See ‘Recommendations of the European Committee on Radiation Risk: Health Effects of Ionising Radiation Exposure at Low Doses for Radiation Protection Purposes Regulators’, Brussels, 2003, here.

²¹ Thierry Ribault, ‘UN Special Rapporteur Anand Grover on Fukushima: A Stunning Report Brushed Aside by the Japanese Government 国連人権委員会理事長アナンド・グローバー氏の目覚ましい福島報告書を払いのける日本政府, Japan Focus, 10 June 2013, here.

²² Between 1939 and 1941, scientists in the Manhattan Project observed that ‘fission products’ emitted photon and particulate radiation, and from studying their metabolism they found that radiation was harmful when ingested as well as to the embryo, and that Strontium was a Calcium analogue and had carcinogenic effects that was harmful to the unborn. In October 1943, a subcommittee of the S-1 Committee for ‘Use of radioactive materials as military weapons’ comprising of Drs. J. Conant, A. Compton and H. Urey wrote to General Groves advising on weaponising such uranium products collected from nuclear pile rods and dispersed by various means into enemy territory (dust, smoke or liquid distributed by ground-fired projectile, land vehicle or aerial bomb). The objective of such weapons was to contaminate enemy food and water supplies, making the land uninhabitable, including airports and railroad yards, cause casualties in military and civilian populations, while protecting US troops and civilians with potassium and vitamin D and calcium concentrate. See ‘Groves Memo’, 30 October 1943, here; also Langley P., Medicine and the Bomb: Deceptions from Trinity to Maralinga, Port Willunga, SA: Paul J. Langley, July 2012: 7-9.

²³ For example, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Toxicological Profile for Uranium, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999, here.

²⁴ Pu 239 is an alpha emitter, has a half-life of 24,000 years, mimics iron and goes to the liver, spleen and bone marrow. It causes 10 to 1000 times more chromosome damage than the same amount of gamma or beta radiation. It is pyrophoric (combusts upon contact with oxygen) and changes its volume and density with temperature change. Its heat makes it highly toxic when ingested, glows in the dark (Pu 238), and currently fuels the Curiosity rover on Mars. Caesium 137, a gamma emitter, is the most abundant fission product in nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. Its half-life of 30 yrs, high-energy decay, chemical reactivity and high solubility (Ci), means that Cs 137 will be present for roughly 300 years after Fukushima. It attracts to muscle tissues (prostate/ovary/breast cancer) and causes malignant muscle cancers (rhabdomyosarcomas, heart arrhythmias and cardiac arrests, muscle seizures, loss of consciousness, memory loss). Strontium (Sr89-90) mimics calcium, goes to the bone and teeth, causes bone cancers and leukaemia and is radioactive for 300 years. Along with the above, there are many other radionuclides in the inventory of nuclear reactors: alpha - thorium, radium, neptunium, curium 244, americium 241, californium, polonium 210 (transuranic and actinides); gamma - Cobalt 60, Irridium 92, Barium 137, Iodine 131, Lanthanum 140; Beta - Tritium, Phosphorous, Nickel, Carbon; Alpha and Beta - Strontium 90, Cadmium 113, Europium 155, Krypton 85, Tin 121 (Sn), Samarium 90; noble gases - Xenon and Iodine 131. As the weight or chemical mass of a radionuclide causes most damage to internal structures, when ingested heavy alpha particles are even more destructive than beta and gamma emitters.

²⁵ Natural sources of gamma rays on Earth come from natural radioisotopes, and from interactions with cosmic ray particles. The capacity of radiation to mutate cells and increase mitosis rate means that radiation is used in cancer therapy (white T cells or red blood cells) and agriculture (new plant strains through mutated seeds; controlled irradiation to kill bacteria in food). This can also create less resistance to cytotoxins (chemical cells) which can increase sickness.

²⁶ See ‘Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey’, here; ‘Thyroid cancer found in 18 Fukushima children’, NHK, 21 August 2013, here; ‘Thyroid cancer found in 12 minors in Fukushima’, Kyodo, 5 June 2013, ‘Fukushima gov't forced to reveal children's thyroid gland tests,’ 22 April 2013, here.

²⁷ This amount was estimated from Aoyama Michio's IAEA statement on Caesium and strontium only releases, ‘44.9 Tbq Contamination Released to Sea and Air in Last 2 years at Fuku Daiichi’, 24 September 2013, here.

²⁸ Fukushima is registering 24.9 children per 100,000 compared to 11.3 children per 100,000 in Chernobyl in the same time period. Kinoshita Kota's calculation of 24.9 children per 100,000 people is higher than Dr. Bandazhevsky's calculation from the Gomel region 5 years after the accident in 1991, where the frequency of thyroid cancer in children was 11.3 children per 100,000 people. Including all actual and suspected cases, the rate of children in Fukushima is more than two times higher than the rate in areas near Chernobyl in less than half the time. Kinoshita Kôta, ‘Radiation protection project’, Kinoshita Kôta blog, here.

²⁹ ‘TEPCO finds new radioactive water leak at Fukushima’, Arirang News, 3 October 2013, 00:40-1:00, here.

³⁰ For a survey from 20 September - 3 October 2013, see Katsumi Takahiro, ‘Fall Japan 2013 Japan National Residents Nosebleed Survey v1.0’, here. See also, Takenouchi Mari, ‘Health damage shown among a family from Fukushima city’, 24 September 2013, here.

³¹ Similar to the way in which the dismissal of the relation of internal radiation to the death from oesophagus cancer and cerebral haemhorrage of 58 year old Yoshida Masao, who had remained to control the meltdowns at the Fukushima NPP, the LDP Policy Bureau Chief Sanae Takaichi sought to justify the nuclear power plant restarts by declaring that ‘it is not that there has been a death from the nuclear accident, including at Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant. We have no choice but utilize nuclear power plants as long as we secure maximum safety’. Sanae went on to claim that ‘the stable supply of power is indispensable for maintaining the competitiveness of industries, and that a nuclear power plant costs enormous amount of money if we think about the cost of decommissioning, but while it is operating the cost is relatively cheap’. Editorial, ‘“There are no deaths from the nuclear accident”, LDP Policy Bureau Chief’, Asahi Shimbun, here.

³² The health risk from regular tritium emissions (40,000 Bq/l) from nuclear power plants has been a source of contention between nuclear protection bodies. In 1990 in Canada concern was such that the ICRP sought to lower the safety standard for tritium to 7000 Bq/litre and then to lower it by 100 Bq/litre every five years until 20 Bq /litre.

³³ ‘S. Korean minister calls Japan ‘immoral’ for covering-up radiation leak’, Yonhap, 30 September 2013, here.

³⁴ John Pilger, ‘From Iraq, a tragic reminder to prosecute the war criminals,’ 27 May 2013, here. The US military also used white phosphorus (wP) against Iraqi ‘insurgents’ during the assault on Fallujah in April and November 2004. WP disperses into a gaseous cloud from the exploded warhead, and burns upon contact with oxygen, water or the skin. The Pentagon claimed wP was a conventional not a chemical weapon and that civilians were not targeted. Maurizio Torrealta, ‘Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre’, RAI TV, 2005; George Monbiot, ‘The US Used Chemical Weapons in Iraq-And Then Lied About It’, The Guardian, 15 November 2005.

³⁵ An estimated 14 per cent of Iraq's population are orphans, and one million families are without fathers.

³⁶ See Baverstock K., ‘Science, Politics and Ethics in the Low Dose Debate’, Medicine, Conflict and Survival, vol 21 (2), 2005: 88-100.

³⁷ See here.

³⁸ See Mozhgan Savabieasfahani, ‘Rise of Cancers and Birth Defects in Iraq: World Health Organization Refuses to Release Data,’ Global Research, 31 July 2013. Savabieasfahani states that Iraqi doctors are convinced that the epidemic is self-evident, despite the difficulties in absolute proof of cancer etiology. He cites British oncologist Karol Sikora, chief of the cancer programme of WHO in the British Medical Journal (Owen Dyer, ‘WHO suppressed evidence on effects of depleted uranium, expert says’, 9 November 2006) who points out that ‘requested radiotherapy equipment, chemotherapy drugs and analgesics are consistently blocked by United States and British advisers [to the Iraq Sanctions Committee]’, and that mentioning Iraq at the WHO was discouraged due to its political nature. See also Denis Halliday, ‘WHO Refuses to Publish Report on Cancers and Birth Defects in Iraq Caused by Depleted Uranium Ammunition’, Global Research, 13 September, 2013; Rob Edwards, ‘WHO ‘Suppressed’ Scientific Study Into Depleted Uranium Cancer Fears in Iraq,’ The Sunday Herald, 24 February 2004.

³⁹ Busby C., Hamdan M., Ariabi E., ‘Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009’, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. See also, Patrick Cockburn, ‘Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah ‘worse than Hiroshima’: The shocking rates of infant mortality and cancer in Iraqi city raise new questions about battle’, The Independent, 24 July 2010, here.

⁴⁰ Chris Busby, ‘Why the WHO report on congenital anomalies in Iraq is a disgrace,’ 29 September 2013, here.

⁴¹ There are reports which suggest the chemical toxicity of DU (U²³⁸) munitions were being associated with post-exertional malaise. See US Army Environmental Policy Institute, June 1995. Also Bertell R., ‘Depleted Uranium: All the questions about DU and Gulf War Syndrome are not yet answered’, International Journal of Health Services, vol 36, No 3, 2006: 503-520, McDiarmid MA. et al., Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A, 67:277-296, 2004. There remains contention over whether it is the alpha-particles or the chemical toxicity of uranium which effects genetic material. See Royal Society, Health Hazards of Depleted Uranium Munitions: Part II, London: Royal Society, March 2002; Hindin R., Brugge D., Panikkar B., ‘Teratogenicity of Depleted Uranium Aerosols: A Review from an Epidemiological Perspective,’ Environmental Health, 2005, 26(4): 17. Albina L., Belles M., Gomez M., Sanchez D.J., Domingo J. L., ‘Influence of Maternal Stress on Uranium- Induced Developmental Toxicity in Rats,’ Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2003, 228 (9):1072-1077; Arfsten D.P., Still K.R., Ritchie G.D., ‘A Review of the Effects of Uranium and Depleted Uranium Exposure on Reproduction and Fetal Development,’ Toxicology and Industrial Health, 2001, 17: 180-191.

⁴² From documents released by the RERF in December 2011, Honda Koya of the Ota Hospital in Nagasaki found that the ABCC had done a survey linking black rain exposure to purpura and epilation. 13,000 people were exposed to black rain. Direct exposure after detonation within 1km was 4,500 mSv, and 2km 100 mSv, but indirect exposure of 10-35 mSv through rain and ground shine extended beyond the 2km radius and was suppressed. See ‘Black Rain: Fruitless data on the A-bomb survivors’, NHK, 1 September 2012, here.

⁴³ Hanford was a plutonium fabrication facility on the Columbia River in Washington. Rocky Flats is owned by the US AEC in Arvada, Colorado, and was operated initially by Dow Chemical. The metal would be shipped to Rocky Flats to be made into useful shapes for the reactors - the ‘pits’ - and then shipped to the Pantex Plant for final assembly into bombs. By 1984, many families had been driven from Hanford due to sickness and cancers. Tom Bailey was a leader of a lobby group seeking compensation, which was finally recognised in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (1990). There is now major concern for the remaining plutonium waste buried beneath the Hanford site (10 metric tonnes, 67 tanks, 710,000 m³) contaminating the groundwater.

⁴⁴ Graeub R., The Petkau Effect - The Devastating Effect of Nuclear Radiation on Human Health and the Environment, New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1994; Burlakova E. B., Naidich V., The Effects of Low Dose Radiation: New Aspects of Radiobiological Research prompted by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Utrecht and Boston: VSP, 2004.

⁴⁵ See Sternglass E., Secret Fallout: Low level radiation from Hiroshima to Three-Mile Island, New York: McGraw Hill 1981.

⁴⁶ Hesse-Honegger C., Heteroptera, New York: Scalo Publishers, 2002.

⁴⁷ These figures were re-confirmed at the Chernobyl Forum 2005, attended by delegates from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, the IAEA, World Bank Group, WHO and UNSCEAR. See here.

⁴⁸ Hesse-Honegger C., Wallimann P., ‘Malformation of True Bug (Heteroptera): a Phenotype Field Study of the Possible Influence of Artificial Low-Level Radioactivity’, Chemistry & Biodiversity, 2008, Vol. 5, Issue 4, pp. 499-539. See also Tom Raum, Associated Press, ‘U.N.: Worst effects of Chernobyl disaster may yet occur’, Record Journal, 26 April 2000; Rebecca Harms, ‘The Chernobyl Legacy’, 9 June 2006, #645-646, here.

⁴⁹ Møller A., Mousseau T. et al., ‘Abundance of birds in Fukushima as judged from Chernobyl,’ Environmental Pollution, Vol 164, May 2012: 36-39, here; ‘Cataracts in the eyes of birds in Chernobyl and Fukushima’, The Economist, 7 September 2013, here.

⁵⁰ 25,000 Bq/Kg were measured in macaques. See Nippon Veterinary and Life Science University (NVLU) quoted in ‘Scientists in groundbreaking study on effects of radiation in Fukushima’, Asahi Shimbun, 10 April 2012, here.

⁵¹ ‘Surviving at the Ranch of Hope: Irradiated Cows from Namie, Evidence of the Nuclear Reactor Accident’, Tokyo Shimbun, 6 September 2013, here in ‘Ranch of Hope - Fukushima’ Official Blog, here; also ‘The man living within20km of the nuclear reactor: Alone in the Zone’, Vice, 10 March 2013, here.

⁵² ‘3100 Bq/kg of Radioactive Caesium from Wild Mice in Kawauchi-mura’, EX-SKF, 13 May 2012, here; NHK, 14 May 2012, here. The Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute also measured worms (19,500 Bq/kg Cs137), leaves (319,000 Bq/kg Cs137) and soil (5cm - 20,900 Bq/kg Cs137). See ‘High radioactive Caesium levels detected in worms 20 km from nuke plant’, Mainichi Daily News, 6 February 2012, here; ‘High Caesium found in earthworms’, Japan Times Online, 8 February 2012, here.

⁵³ ‘Scientists detect highest Caesium levels in a year in Fukushima,’ Asahi Shimbun, 4 July 2013, here.

⁵⁴ Reiji Yoshida, ‘Tepco raises estimate to 400 tons a day’, Japan Times, 27 September 2013, here.

⁵⁵ Between 3-5 July 2013, Fukushima Diary reported 4,300,000 Bq/m3 of all β at 6m from the sea (an 1.4 x increase in 3 days) and 900,000,000 Bq/m3 of all β in the groundwater, the worst reading in groundwater ever published by TEPCO. The exact readings of Strontium-90 were not announced. See here.

⁵⁶ ‘How a Scientist Was Censored by the Japanese Government After the Fukushima Accident’, Fukushima Voice, 27 September 2013, here; Kanda J., ‘Continuing 137Cs release to the sea from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant through 2012’, Biogeosciences Discussions, 10: 3577-3595, 2013, here; Geoff Brumfel, ‘Oceans still suffering from Ocean still suffering from Fukushima fallout: Continuing leaks and contaminated sediment keep radiation levels high’, Nature, 14 November 2012, here.

⁵⁷ Aoyama M., ‘Fukushima derived radionuclides in the ocean’, here, Negishi Takuro, Fujiwara Shinichi, ‘Contaminated water flowing into ocean despite Abe's claim’, Asahi Shimbun, 20 September 2013, here.

⁵⁸ While tritiated water may be cleared from the human body in about 10 days (Garland), organically bound tritium (tritium bound in animal or plant tissue) can stay in the body for 10 years or more and regular exposure can lead to chronic exposure. Tritium from tritiated water can become incorporated into DNA, the molecular basis of heredity for living organisms. Most studies indicate that tritium in living creatures can produce typical radiogenic effects including cancer, genetic effects, developmental abnormalities and reproductive effects (Straume; Rytomaa; Torok; Dobson). Studies have shown that there is no evidence of a threshold for damage from 3H exposure, and that low doses of tritium can even cause more cell death (Dobson), mutations (Ito) and chromosome damage (Hori) than higher tritium doses. Tritium can cause damage two or more times greater per dose than either x-rays or gamma rays (Straume; Dobson). There is no technology that has been developed to remove it from water. See Folkers C., ‘Tritium: Health Consequences’, NIRS, 2006, here.

⁵⁹ Mycle Schneider, Antony Froggatt et al., The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013, 30 July 2013, here.

⁶⁰ ‘Sun, sand, surf and radiation in shadow of Fukushima’, The Daily Tribune, 1 September 2013, here.

⁶¹ The NOAA was quoted by the Emergency and Disaster Information Service - Biological Hazard in multi-countries as reporting over 200 diseased or dead seals found in Canada (Tuktoyuktak), Russia (Kaktovik, Chukotka), Alaska (Barrow, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/site/?pageid=event_desc&edis_id=BH-20111013-32661-MLC. This was also reported by major news agencies including MSNBC and Reuters. See ‘Independent fisheries scientist Alexandra Morton reported the damage to sock eye salmon. See Lake Babine sockeye fishery at risk of unprecedented closure’, The Globe and Mail, 12 August 2013, here.

⁶² Carrie Arnold, ‘Massive Starfish Die-Off Baffles Scientists,’ National Geographic, 9 September 2013, here.

⁶³ On 23 May 2011, hundreds of parents armed with over 50,000 signatures surrounded the MEXT government offices demanding a lowering of this limit. However, a Japanese High Court decision handed down three months after the hearing in 21 January 2013, rejected the right of children to receive compensated evacuation from Koriyama city reflects the official position that health effects below 100mSvy are not proven. See Yanagihara Toshio, representative lawyer for the plaintiffs, the Fukushima Collective Evacuation Trial Team’, 24 April 2013, here.

⁶⁴ These are akin to the recommendations offered by Russian radiation specialist Alexey Yablokov on 15 April 2011, concerning the viable actions the Government could take in response to the Fukushima disaster. See Penney M., Selden M., ‘What Price the Fukushima Meltdown? Comparing Chernobyl and Fukushima’, here.

⁶⁵ A survey on 5-6 October found ‘76% don't believe Fukushima situation ‘under control’; Abe support rate steady at 56%’, Asahi Shimbun, here.

⁶⁶ Professor Eiji Makino of Hosei University stated that the Fukushima disaster is indicative of how the nation's ‘political, social, economic, and moral standards are falling apart… Japan is on the verge of a collapse’. See ‘0.23μSv - Fukushima: Is There a Way Out?’, Arirang TV, 9 September 2013, from 46:00, here.