ASIA / PACIFIC
December 4, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
Fukushima facelift masks morass inside
FUKUSHIMA FACELIFT. This combination of photos shows the
Unit 3 building of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear
power plant on February 28, 2012 (top) and August 2, 2017 (bottom),
at Okuma town in Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan. The tsu-
nami-hit power plant has had a major facelift since the 2011 meltdowns,
at least above ground. Inside and underground, it remains largely a mo-
rass. (AP Photo)
By Mari Yamaguchi
The Associated Press
O
KUMA, Japan — Above ground, the tsunami-hit
Fukushima nuclear power plant has had a major
facelift since the 2011 disaster. Inside and
underground remains largely a morass.
A stylish new office building was the first thing that
came into view during a recent tour for foreign media.
Another building has a cafeteria and a convenience store.
It’s easy to forget you’re in the official no-go zone, where
access is restricted.
We first went through automated security checks and
radiation measurement at the new building, where 1,000
employees of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s decommissioning
unit work. A sign prohibits games such as Pokémon Go.
Visitors no longer must put on hazmat suits and
full-face charcoal-filter masks, or plastic shoe covers,
unless they are going to the most contaminated areas. We
donned the gear for low-dose areas: a helmet, double
socks, cotton gloves, surgical mask, goggles, and a vest
with a personal dosimeter.
There was little reminder of the devastation from
six-and-a-half years earlier. The highly contaminated
debris and mangled vehicles are gone. The feeble-looking
plastic hoses mended with tape and the outdoor power
switchboard that rats got into, once causing a blackout,
have been replaced with proper equipment.
A new curved cover has been built over the Unit 3
reactor, whose roof was blown off, leaving a mess of
girders, concrete, and cables. A horizontal smudge high up
on a nearby waste-storage building marks the height of
the tsunami: 17 meters, or 56 feet.
The 900 huge tanks built to store a growing volume of
radioactive water tower over visitors. A water
management team monitored the contaminated water at
what was once the crisis command center. Strings of
good-luck, folded-paper cranes still hang in the hallway.
The tanks underscore the challenges that remain, in the
basements of the reactor buildings, where the water
collects, and deep inside the three reactors that had
meltdowns.
Remote-controlled robots provided a limited view of the
melted fuel earlier this year, in areas where it is too
dangerous for humans to go. The exact location of the fuel
remains largely unknown. It was an early step in the
still-uncertain, decades-long plan to decommission the
plant.
Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi has visited the Fuku-
shima nuclear power plant six times since the 2011 disaster.
Papua New Guinea officials remove last refugees from camp
By Rod McGuirk
The Associated Press
C
ANBERRA, Australia — The last
asylum seekers abandoned a
closed immigration camp on
Papua New Guinea (PNG) in late
November, ending a three-week standoff
between police and hundreds of men who
had been prepared to suffer squalid
conditions without power or running
water rather than move to other
residences where they feared violence.
Police chief superintendent Dominic
Kakas said police and immigration
officials removed all 378 men from the
male-only camp on Manus Island over two
days and took them by bus to residences in
the nearby town of Lorengau.
Refugee advocates say officials used
force and destroyed asylum seekers’
belongings to make them leave Manus.
Video was released of officials in the camp
wielding batons.
Water, power, and food supplies ended
when the Manus camp officially closed on
October 31, based on the Papua New
Guinea Supreme Court’s ruling last year
that Australia’s policy of housing asylum
seekers there was unconstitutional. But
asylum seekers fear for their safety in
Lorengau because of threats from local
residents.
Australia pays Papua New Guinea, its
nearest neighbor, and the tiny Pacific
nation of Nauru to hold more than 2,000
asylum seekers from Africa, the Middle
East, and Asia who have attempted to
reach Australian shores by boat since
mid-2013.
Before confirmation that Manus Island
had been emptied, Australian Prime
Minister Malcolm Turnbull welcomed
news that asylum seekers were leaving.
“I’m please to say in terms of Manus,
that the reports we have are that busloads
of the people at Manus are leaving, they’re
complying with the lawful directions of the
PNG authorities and moving to the
alternative facilities available to them and
that’s as they should,” Turnbull told
reporters.
“That is precisely what you should do, if
you’re in a foreign country. You should
comply with the laws of that other
country,” he added.
Shen Narayanasamy, activist group
GetUp’s rights campaigner said in a state-
ment: “I awoke this morning to frantic
phone calls from refugees on Manus
screaming: ‘Help, help, they are killing us.’
It is astounding that refugees being beaten
and dragged out to busses has the support
of the Australian government.”
Police maintain no force was used.
Australian Immigration and Border
Protection minister Peter Dutton accused
refugee advocates of making “inaccurate
and exaggerated claims of violence and
injuries on Manus,” without providing
evidence.
Dutton also accused asylum seekers of
sabotaging backup generators and water
infrastructure at the new accommodation
provided by Australia in Lorengau.
“What is clear is that there has been an
organized attempt to provoke trouble and
disrupt the new facilities,” Dutton said in a
statement.
UNHCR, the United Nations refugee
agency, said in a statement that its staff
had heard troubling reports of forcible
removal. UNHCR said it had been given
assurances that excessive force had not
been used, but could not independently
confirm as staff had not been allowed full
access to Manus.
Peter Costello, chief advocate of the
Christian charity World Vision Australia
who is on Manus, said a number of the men
relocated were covered in bruises and
scratches and appeared to be malnour-
Continued on page 6
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