Who pays the price for Japan’s nuclear power?
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Over the past 15 years, much has changed in the affected regions. In the prefectures of Miyagi and Iwate, reconstruction is now officially considered largely complete. Numerous coastal communities have been relocated to higher ground, hills have been leveled, land has been raised and seawalls several meters high have been built to protect against future tsunamis.
In Fukushima Prefecture, meanwhile, a globally unique decontamination program is still underway, aiming to gradually lift evacuation orders. The evacuation zone has shrunk from its original 1,150 square kilometers to 309 square kilometers, partly due to the natural decay of radioactivity. With visible pride, the government has announced that at least part of every affected municipality is now once again habitable. At the same time, extensive revitalization projects have been launched.
The once ubiquitous mountains of black plastic bags filled with contaminated soil have, in many places, given way to new buildings or vacant lots where damaged homes once stood. Large-scale projects aim to transform the region into a hub for high-tech and research. New schools, kindergartens, libraries and sports centers are intended to make the area more attractive for families. In the habitable part of Okuma as well, a new event hall and a park with restaurants were completed last year. Yet the challenges remain immense. The longer an area remained within the evacuation zone, the lower residents' willingness to return.
Okuma’s population has declined from more than 11,000 to around 10% of that number. Of the roughly 1,000 current residents, only about 300 are returnees. The largest share today consists of workers in the nuclear industry, responsible for decontamination or the decommissioning of the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. Paradoxically, the progress of reconstruction itself has thus given rise to a new concern: that once the cleanup work is completed, jobs will disappear — and with them yet another portion of the already diminished population.
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