Google Maps a Japanese Nuclear Ghost Town

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/03/google-maps-a-japanese-nuclear-ghost-town/100482/

Google Maps a Japanese Nuclear Ghost Town
Mar 28, 2013

Two years after the the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, and the following tsunami and nuclear disaster, a large area around the failed Fukushima nuclear plant is still considered an exclusion zone. Namie, a small city just north of the nuclear power plant, was evacuated shortly after the quake, and its 21,000 townspeople have been unable to return since, leaving it a ghost town. At the invitation of local officials, Google recently deployed its camera-equipped vehicles to Namie to create a street view map of the deserted town so residents can see their abandoned homes, and the world can witness the remains of the disaster. On Google's Map blog, Namie's Mayor Tamotsu Baba said, "Ever since the March disaster, the rest of the world has been moving forward, and many places in Japan have started recovering. But in Namie-machi time stands still... Those of us in the older generation feel that we received this town from our forebears, and we feel great pain that we cannot pass it down to our children." I've collected some of the scenes captured by the Google Maps crew below, a glimpse into an otherworldly landscape a few kilometers north of the Fukushima nuclear plant. (33 photos)

[joanbarnes]

1. Would like to see pics of what it looked like before the disaster.

[Art_from_Ark]

2. Here you go-- pre-disaster photos of Namie

http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~kiyohasi/izennofuukei.html

To see all the photos, click 2013.1.3 near the top of the page.

[CRH]

5. There is another thing really incredible about these pre disaster pics, ...

Can anyone spot one piece of litter, one pile of cast off material possessions, one plastic bottle?

There was obviously a lot of pride, respect and humility at once, for their homes, businesses, neighborhoods, and industrial park.

Sad to see it now, uninhabitable.

[Art_from_Ark]

6. The person who set up the web site had this to say about the area:

"2011/3/11の東日本大震災は、私たちの故郷「浪江町」に大きな傷跡を残した。私の母や親戚の方々の生まれた請戸地区や友人たちの棚塩地区は、全てが流された。もう面影はない"

"The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011, left a huge scar on our hometown Namie. The Ukedo district where my mother and other relatives were born, and the Tanashio district where some friends were living, were completely wiped out. There is nothing left"

Some more post-disaster photos of the area can be seen here:

http://www.google.co.jp/search?q=請戸&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=u8sqUsz-M4ulkQWm6oCwCg&ved=0CCsQsAQ&biw=1238&bih=665

[kristopher]

3. "Stunning and moving photo essay from Fukushima area by a German photographer"

http://www.neureuters.de/umwelt/fukushima

Here is a sample - it's the one I found most interesting.



Koriyama: As with all official measuring posts checked by me (37 of 1,341) this one also shows a value almost 50% too low compared to my calibrated Geiger counter.

Thank you for the OP.

[caraher]

10. I'd like to know more about the counter Neureuter shows

He says his readings were consistently higher by 30-50% than the official displays; that actually doesn't sound so bad to me. If he got readings that were different by a factor of 5 or something that would clearly indicate something fishy; but getting a precise and accurate dose rate out of a GM tube involves either working to make the instrument response more independent of gamma energy or processing the signals with some assumptions about the energy distribution of the radiation.

It's quite likely that the off-the-shelf hand-held units simply use a different scheme to convert the raw signal into a dose (or shape the raw signal in a way that reflects dose). It's not obvious that the hand-held unit should be considered the gold standard.

It is useful to have citizen monitoring, as I wouldn't advocate blind trust in TEPCO and the government given their track record. But a factor of 2 or less isn't really going to make the difference between an area being "safe" (under almost any criterion) or not.

[allan01]

4. re:Google Maps a Japanese Nuclear Ghost Town

i am breaking radio silence here . i wish the japanese government would quit coddeling tepco. and the government needs to be shamed as well ( shame is a big thing in japan.) i feel that tepco is a japanese national disgrase.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. So what should the Japanese government do about TEPCO?

Last edited Mon Sep 9, 2013, 04:41 AM - Edit history (1)

TEPCO still supplies electricity to about 40 million people, including me.

[Throckmorton]

8. Do a LIPA

It should be taken over and run as a government utility. Like was do to Lilco (Long Island Lighting Company) back in the 80's.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. I'm not sure if that would really do any good

The Abe government has become involved with the cleanup/containment efforts at Dai-ichi, but it's already being criticized for foot-dragging on formulating a comprehensive set of measures to deal with the situation. And I get the feeling that the government would not be very adept at running the day-to-day operations of the company.

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/politics/news/130902/plc13090223320016-n1.htm