トップタブ(ページ群)

2011年3月29日

About Tokyo

I know how the world is looking at us now. Due to this nuclear disaster, we're considered one of the most dangerous country in the world. Not to speak of it's capital city... but I want to explain something about Tokyo.

There are over 13,000,000 people still living in this city, including myself.
Here, people are working, kids go to school, we're shopping at supermarkets. But it doesn't mean that we're unaware of radioactive substances. Indeed, we know that our environment has changed since that day.

We are 250km away from the plant, which means we're not irrelevant. Our radiation is measured and announced everyday on the Internet. We're monitoring it's movement. Following data are from Tokyo central area.

Date Air
μGy/h
Reservoir 131I
Bq/kg
Tap Water 131I
Bq/kg
Remarks
3/280.111Not Detected9.82
3/270.116Not Detected19.7
3/260.1223437.2 *peak
3/250.1305131.8
3/240.138 7925.6
3/230.144 *peak19025.8Rain
3/220.128 210 *peak18.7Rain
3/210.113 No Data5.25Rain
3/200.0453No Data2.93
3/190.0469No Data2.85
3/180.0485No Data1.47
Before
earthquake
0.028~0.079Not DetectedNot Detected

You can't just compare these numbers, because they're all coming from different data sources, and I omitted the data for 134Cs and 137Cs. It's not for the accuracy, but to see the tendency.

It's clear that the radiation in the air increases accordingly with the rain (rather than winds). Also the water at reservoir, was highly contaminated when it rained. Then few days after that, tap water showed it's peak. So we can estimate that there are possible time difference between reservoir and tap.

Here are the questions:
Can we tolerate this amount of radiation? -- Yes.
Can we still live in Tokyo? -- Yes.
Are we happy with this? -- No.

Well, it's really difficult to say how "safe" it is, because safety always depends on what to compare. Long time ago during World War II, we had 2 atomic bombs and people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki went through radiation. It's somehow ironic that in time of peace, we have radiation again from our own technology.

I'm the one who was really scared with this accident. I still have lots of anxiety. But I'm still here. So if you're living outside of Japan, please don't get scared too much. I bet you're safe. And if you are still concerned, you can study about clean energies like geothermal and tidal power. Please discuss openly about these possibilities with your friends and family.
So we can dream of better future.

にほんブログ村 ひとりごとへ

2011年3月24日

地震と津波と原発と

3月11日、地震が来るなり表に飛び出た青山です。ぐらぐら揺れ続ける大地と家と電柱を見つめながら、一体この先どうなってしまうだろうと恐怖ですくんでいました。家も電柱も倒れなかったけど、あの時の灰色の空は忘れられません。前回の離婚といい、今回の地震といい、どうしてアフリカから戻るたびに破壊的な出来事が起こるんだろう。

今に至るまで更新が途絶えてしまったので、これまでの出来事を要約します。
去年、7ヶ月かけてロシアから西アフリカまでドライブしました。道中いろいろありましたが、困った時には必ず助けてくれる人が現れました。飲み水が無くなったと思えば湧き水が現れ、お腹がすいたと思えば食事に誘われ、何度も諦めた悪路ですら目的地への道が示されました。結局、3万キロの道のりをパンクひとつする事なく走りおおせたのは、奇跡だったと思います。

幸運は最後の最後まで続きました。西アフリカのマリ(モプティ)から、パリを経てオランダに滞在し、最終的にはアムステルダムから成田空港まで飛んだのですが、この時、安い航空券の選択肢は3つありました。私はエミレイツ(ドバイ経由)を選択し、快適なフライトで無事に日本に帰国できました。。。が、もしこの時、他の航路を選択していたら、空港テロ(モスクワ)に遭っていたか、革命(カイロ)に巻き込まれていた所でした。ふう、間一髪。

これってもしかして、ロシアで貰ったアルハンゲル・ミハイユ(大天使ミカエル)のお守りのご加護かも!?。。。と感謝しつつ、東京の実家でゆるゆると再起を図っていたのですが。2月中はいろいろ奔走したにも関わらず、いまいち何をしてもうまく行かない日々が続きました。あれえ?なんでかなぁ。。。

そしたら3月に入って、この大地震。
真性チキンの私はショックを受け、それ以来ダウン。。。

東京では電気も水道もインターネットも使え、被災地の皆さんの過酷な状況に比べれば天国のように恵まれていると頭では理解しつつも、精神的に受け止め切れず、糸が切れてしまいました。
ええ、ダメダメです。はい。
しかも再び食欲不振に陥り、両親に多大な心配と迷惑をかけてしまいました。ゴメンナサイ。

津波の規模もさることながら、個人的に最も衝撃だったのは原発事故です。我々の豊かな生活を支えてきた電気という恩恵が、このようなリスクと引き換えだったとは。日本が安全でなかったという事は、原発推進国のどこも安全ではないという事かも知れません。
(そういえば、電気も水道も無かったドゴンの村での滞在は東京育ちの私には不便でしたが、今となってはこの上なく懐かしい想い出かも。。。)

地震のあと、道中出会った大勢の海外の友達からメールを貰いました。ロシア、スウェーデン、オーストリア、オランダ、イタリア、アメリカなどといった国々から疎開の勧めを頂いたり。

いろんな事が現在進行中なので、まだまだ振り返って評価するには早いのだろうな、と思います。
今は、旅を共にしたアルハンゲル・ミハイユのお守りを手元で眺めつつ、道中あれだけの加護を与えてくれた理由と、今回の地震との関連を尋ねてみたいと夢想する今日このごろです。

心休まる日への道のりの遠さを思わずにいられません。

にほんブログ村 ひとりごとへ

2011年3月18日

About the nuclear plant

As everyone knows already, our nuclear plant is still in serious situation. Within a week from the earthquake, four of the reactors had big explosions, and now they are causing dangerous radiation leak.

Fukushima nuclear plant was well prepared with redundant backup cooling systems. Not to mention the ability to stop nuclear reactions immediately, even with the unpredictable M9.0 earthquake. (We had good reasons to be confident about our nuclear safety)

They've built a big bank, which can stand against tsunami as high as 7m. But no one ever imagined that there could be 10m high tsunami. Fukushima nuclear complex had bunch of emergency diesel generators, even a huge tank to store the fuel, but all these things were washed away.

Since the nuclear reactors have been automatically stopped, the controllers completely lost the electricity source. All the high-tech safety systems suddenly turned out to be useless.

At first, not so many people were aware of probable hydrogen explosions. Every possible treatment was postponed until the moment when situation got irreversibly bad. Our final solution was to pump sea water in, which also meant to abandon the reactors, but all these important decisions were delayed.

Now we're seeing what kind of disasters can happen at nuclear plant without control. Those blasted buildings, partial melt downs, damaged reactor containers, huge amount of radiation leak threatening people's health... and it's still going on.

There are many courageous people at Fukushima nuclear plant pumping the sea water into reactors. Due to high radiation, each person can work only several minutes at a time, and they know they're risking their own lives.

I grew up in Tokyo. My life was always surrounded by electricity and high-tech products. I'm very thankful to all these practical inventions, but now we've learned that the result of our luxurious life can be a disaster.

Hoping someday, we can develop safe, clean, and efficient power source.

にほんブログ村 ひとりごとへ

2011年3月13日

About the earthquake

First, I really appreciate all your concerns regarding series of earthquakes in Japan.

It happened 3 days ago (Mar.11th) in the afternoon, suddenly it started to shake. Although we're all used to earthquakes, this time I thought it was totally different. In Tokyo, it was not a strong one (because I could stand up and walk), but it lasted very long. I went out on the street and saw the electricity poles swinging roughly.

Soon after, we had series of similar earthquakes. I was with my mother, we turned on TV, and found out that the northern pacific coast of Japan was about to be devoured by tsunami. We saw the live images from helicopters. The houses, cars, roads, and fields, are all washed away right in front of our eyes.

I tried to call my father in the office, but phones were all out due to emergency. Then all the metros and trains are suspended. All the flights were cancelled too. And in the meantime, we had aftershocks time to time.

It was fortunate at least in Tokyo, we could use electricity and Internet. I received Skype call from Europe and Russia. Sometimes it's easier to communicate foreign countries than calling my own father in Tokyo!
(He came back home late in the midnight)

Besides tsunami, we had another serious problem with nuclear power plant 250km north from Tokyo. They immediately stopped the nuclear reactor, but all the water cooling systems were down. On the next day, one of the reactor's building exploded due to excessive hydrogen, which was really awful... Thank God the metal container inside was intact at that moment.

Regarding all these, I must admit that we're in difficult situation. But all the people are trying their best, including international support from all over the world. We've received lots of warm messages which is encouraging us a lot.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

にほんブログ村 ひとりごとへにほんブログ村 大陸横断・大陸縦断へ