Fukushima nuclear disasterwill impact forests, rivers and estuaries for hundreds of years
The environmental impacts of the Fukushima
Daiichi nuclear disaster will last decades to centuries, warns a new
Greenpeace Japan report. Man-made, long-lived radioactive elements are
absorbed into the living tissues of plants and animals and recycled
through food webs, and carried downstream to the Pacific Ocean by
typhoons, snowmelt, and flooding.
“The government’s massive decontamination program will
have almost no impact on reducing the ecological threat from the
enormous amount of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Already, over 9 million cubic metres of nuclear waste are scattered over
at least 113,000 locations across Fukushima prefecture,” said Kendra
Ulrich, Senior Nuclear Campaigner at Greenpeace Japan.
“The Abe government is perpetuating a myth that five years
after the start of the nuclear accident the situation is returning to
normal. The evidence exposes this as political rhetoric, not scientific
fact. And unfortunately for the victims, this means they are being told
it is safe to return to environments where radiation levels are often
still too high and are surrounded by heavy contamination.”
The report is based on a large body of independent
scientific research in impacted areas in the Fukushima region, as well
as investigations by Greenpeace radiation specialists over the past five
years. It exposes deeply flawed assumptions by the International
Atomic Energy Agency and the Abe government in terms of both
decontamination and ecosystem risks. It further draws on research on the
environmental impact of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe as an
indication of the potential future for contaminated areas in Japan.
The environmental impacts are already becoming apparent, with studies showing:
- High radiation concentrations in new leaves, and at least in the case of cedar, in pollen;
- apparent increases in growth mutations of fir trees with rising radiation levels;
- heritable mutations in pale blue grass butterfly populations and DNA-damaged worms in highly contaminated areas, as well as apparent reduced fertility in barn swallows;
- decreases in the abundance of 57 bird species with higher radiation levels over a four year study; and
- high levels of caesium contamination in commercially important freshwater fish; and radiological contamination of one of the most important ecosystems – coastal estuaries.
Data: 08.03.2016
Fonte: www.greenpeace.org
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