The Fukushima nuclear power plant exploded on 11 March 2011. The images that were broadcast on television perpetuated the moment of the explosion and the subsequent white cloud in the sky. In the news of the coming days and months Fukushima had special relevance, but the speed that today leads to our world has relegated the issue to the position of the umpteenth, even more I would say that there is already a young generation among us who does not know what Fukushima is.

It is in part normal for Fukushima to be lost in the encyclopedia of history as so many other events. We are relentlessly suffering from the consequences of historical events, which are sometimes hard, better for some and more valuable for others or undecided for the rest. Those who are important to some social sectors want to keep alive through such a fashionable “historical memory”, but I forget that of Fukushima, but it is a living fact, that is, it is not yet history.

Much of the exiled population after the explosion lives far from its place of origin and those who have returned live in places where there is much or little level of radiation and among them thyroid cancers, suicides and rare diseases have increased. The water is poured without interruption so as not to heat it, and after mixing it with the groundwater, it is poured into the sea or anywhere. Meanwhile, it is unknown how the fuel is found, as the robots sent have died on site. The level of radiation at sea has not increased too much, but it has increased a little, and researchers do not agree that radiation decreases over time will have a negative effect.

According to TEPCO, the company in charge of managing Fukushima in 2016 would need between 30 and 40 years to dismantle the plant and cost more than EUR 170,000 million.

Today, however, there is nothing but silence and ignorance about Fukushima. No one says anything, and the Japanese Government and the Japanese population continue to pay and continue the tasks that will be carried out for decades; and statistical studies on rare diseases will be carried out among the inhabitants of the central zone. In the meantime, the slowdown in the world around nuclear energy has been forgotten and we are once again in full swing, also in Euskal Herria, because we must not forget that in many times of the year we consume the nuclear energy we buy from France.

We've forgotten it, we've learned nothing, and in the meantime Fukushima is not asleep, it's not just a statistic, it's a malignant reality that's sent to younger generations and that's going to survive.