[Buddha-l] Japan priest fights local radiation

[Jo]

http://tinyurl.com/7hyd2yj 

Feb 10, 2012 
FUKUSHIMA (Reuters) - On the snowy fringes of Japan's Fukushima city, now
notorious as a byword for nuclear crisis, Zen monk Koyu Abe offers prayers
for the souls of thousands left dead or missing after the earthquake and
tsunami nearly one year ago.
But away from the ceremonial drums and the incense swirling around the
Joenji temple altar, Abe has undertaken another task, no less harrowing --
to search out radioactive "hot spots" and clean them up, storing irradiated
earth on temple grounds.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, some 50 km (31 miles) away, suffered a
series of explosions and meltdowns after the massive earthquake and tsunami
last March 11, setting off the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl
in 1986 and forcing 80,000 people from their homes.
Radiation, carried on winds and by snow, spread far beyond the 20 km (12
miles) evacuation zone around the plant, nestling in hot spots across the
region and contaminating the ground in what remains a largely agricultural
region.
Many of those who fled have no idea when, if ever, they can return to land
held by their families for generations.
[more in article]

Joanna