The Phoenix Leader Education Program conducted a short-term fieldwork in Fukushima Prefecture over three days on September 26 to 28, 2023.

The purpose of short-term fieldwork is to understand the current status of reconstruction from radiation disaster in the affected area and to find the issues from a cross-disciplinary perspective beyond the fields for protecting lives from radiation disaster, protecting the environment from radioactivity, and protecting people and society from radioactivity.

Fieldwork activities:

• Learn the comprehensive knowledge of the Fukushima Health Management Survey
• Interviews with local residents who live in Iitate Village which was contaminated by radioactive materials as the result of the accident at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant
• Site Visit the Frontiers of Research and Development for Naraha Center for Remote Control Technology Development (NARREC) and the Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science(CLADS) of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency（JAEA）
• Interviews with a doctor and a nurse who continued to work at the hospital in Minamisoma city in the chaotic period immediately after the disaster of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear power plant accident
• Interviews with residents who were forced to evacuate suddenly and for an extended period of time due to evacuation orders

Students learned about:

• Psychological distress among the Fukushima residents, Various efforts and activities for reconstruction
• Importance of a multidisciplinary approach to identify and resolve the problems in complex disasters such as radiation disaster

Site visit at NARREC

Interviews with residents