Disaster is a fact, so is life and death

Some weeks back, along with friends I conducted some measurements to verify the radiation levels at different locations of Komatsugawa, especially where our children frequently play on weekends. Almost 9 months have passed since the disaster, still the fear of radiation linger in the minds of those who decided to stay back in Japan. Radiation is a fact and living with the painful facts needs an extra effort and justification. Probably the measurements we conducted were also to justify our decision to stay back.

It is also a fact that, solving disasters whether manmade or natural takes long time. Any kind of disaster is a sudden transition from a balanced state to an unbalanced state, where the whole system knowingly or unknowingly goes out of a defined set of procedures. Unfortunate, but it happens. It happened in Russia, now in Japan, tomorrow somewhere else. But the thirst of human beings to experiment with their own life to find new things and progress never ceases. It is this aggression of human beings to explore and conquer nature and universe differentiates them from other creatures.

Emotion does not play a significant role in the human endeavors for scientific progression. That is how humans evolved and learned to master things around them. Strong determination to tame the nature and surrounding things in the struggle for existence (more close to the definitions of Ayn Rand than Darwin) is the foundation of modern civilizations.

Humans evolved to the current state out of the experiments of taming the nature and surrounding things. Nuclear radiation may not tame very easily. It may be difficult task for humans, but raising hands is not the solution. The solution is to find out the ways to tame these untamed nuclear radiations and consequences.

The allowable limits of exposure to nuclear radiations and its effects are still debatable. The Japanese standard limit of exposure to radiation was 1 millisievert/year. This is equivalent to 0.114 microsievert/hour. Some parts of the world has higher than 3 millisieverts/year natural background radiation. Accumulation of radiation effects through food is a matter of concern.

The purpose of our measurement was to verify the officially announced and other individually measured values. Inside the home, the measured values were less than 0.1microsievert/hour. Some areas of Komatsugawa showed relatively higher values such as 0.4 microsieverts per hour, which can be converted in to 3.5 millisieverts per year. This is a theoretically possible maximum and nobody stay outside for 24 hours a day to absorb this level of radiation.

Experts say, these levels of background radiation is not a matter of concern. The acceptable levels of radiation is still a matter of debate as mentioned earlier. Anyway, all are in the hope that the concerned authorities will take appropriate action. Action is slow in this part of the world, but once taken it will be efficiently implemented and fervently followed.

One spring, summer and autumn had passed since March. Mild after shocks still continues bringing memories of the big quake, but the life goes on. Human life will not stop in front of disasters. It is a fact as death. Relatives weep one or two days, but the life doesn’t stop. Life is also a fact as death.