Maryknoll Sisters

As we approach one year since the horrific tsunami in Japan, the message that moved Sr. Kathleen Reiley more than any other was from a 9-year-old boy: 'I don't want to get sick.'

I just got back from Fukushima and Iwate in Japan (which were affected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami), and was also able to attend an international conference on getting rid of nuclear energy.

Here are a few important facts that I hope you will share with as many people as you know:

There are 600 tons of nuclear fuel in Fukushima prefecture.  There were 10 tons in the Chernobyl accident.

In reactor Reactor 1, 68 tons of fuel has melted and is eating through the container.  There are only about 30 centimeters left of the container – but even that fact cannot be certified – since no one can get close to the area because of the high radioactivity.

Fuel has also melted in Reactors 2 and 3. Reactor 3 contains plutonium – which has a half life of 24,000 years. Traces of it have already been found outside of the reactor.

The water being used to cool the reactors and the spent fuel stored in Reactor 4 is still leaking. They are running out of storage tanks to hold the excess water and are considering releasing it into the sea in the spring.

There are four kilometers of pipes carrying this water and now with the winter – there is danger of the pipes freezing and not being able to carry the water. If the fuel continues to eat through the container and it gets into the ground water and then flows into the sea – who can imagine what the result will be.

Because the fuel is eating through the containment vessel it will make it much harder to remove the melted fuel and it’s still very hot. It will probably take 40 to 50 years until it is removed and then the big question is where to store all this nuclear waste.

No prefecture wants to accept it.  In fact, there is no place in the world that is considered a safe place for it. Ninety percent of the workers who are doing this extremely dangerous work are day laborers.

Ordinarily, being exposed to just 30 milliseiverts can cause cancer and these men are allowed to be exposed to 250.  Then they are laid off and usually are unemployed with no real benefits.  It really is throw-away labor.  And they need 30,000 people to do this work.  Some of them are loaded on a bus and only later told they are being taken to Fukushima.

Then there is the problem of the 160,000 people who have been evacuated.  Who have no idea when they can return to their homes.  And who have already been exposed to high doses of radiation when the accident happened.  And there are still many more people in the 20-30-kilometer radius who should be evacuated but are receiving no financial help from the government to evacuate.

The iodine has disappeared after eight days but there is cesium and stronium being found in the food chain.  Cesium will be around for at least 100 to 300 years!

And China, Pakistan, India, the United States, Chile, Lithuania, Vietnam, and Jordan are all planning to build even more nuclear reactors.

If we stopped all the reactors in the world today it would take at least 50 years to really decommission them and we have all this waste to figure out what to do with.  And yet we want to build even more?

At the international conference there were many experts from all over the world but the message that moved me more than any other was by a 9-year-old boy from Fukushima.  He said, “Our lives and our health are more important than money. I don’t want to get sick.”

You know I have been working with children with cancer.  I don’t want even one child to get cancer.  It’s devastating.

A study was just released by French doctors that twice as many children who live near nuclear reactors get leukemia.  And these are stable reactors that have not had an accident and still the rate of cancer is higher near them.

Please do all you can to help end nuclear energy now. The future of our earth and our children is at stake.

Love and Peace,

Sister Kathleen Reiley, MM

I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support for the people who have suffered so much in the March earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in Japan.

Children who have cancer make up Sr. Kathleen's ministry. She fears more cases near the damaged nuclear plant in Japan.

I have been able to go there four times and will be going again.  There are so many on-going needs and now with winter setting in it will be even more challenging.

I have been mostly involved with informal counseling and activities with children.   I have been connected with Caritas Japan and Share, a medical non-profit organization. Both groups are committed to ongoing service of the people.

Last month when I was in Kesennuma a man who had lost his home said,”We don’t like it when groups come in have a big event, take lots of pictures and then leave.  We feel they are doing that for their own publicity.  What we need is on-going relationships with people who really care about us and will struggle with us to help us know what the next step is for us.”

I have also been asked to join the Catholic Tokyo Volunteers, whose main area of responsibility is ministering to the people in Fukushima who had to evacuate because of the nuclear accident.

The radiation, especially in contaminated soil from cesium, whose half life is 30 years, is such a big concern – especially to families with small children.  They don’t know where to store it. 

They do not encourage volunteers under 40 to go to Fukushima because of the health risk.  I’m 67 now – so no problem.  I hope to go there in December for a Christmas party and then again in the New Year to help make special New Year’s traditional Japanese food.

For those of you who have donated money please be assured that it is being channeled to the people who need it the most – through very reputable groups.  I wish I had time to thank you each personally but I’m sure you understand the constraint of time that I am under.

Sr. Margaret Lacson is also using some of the money to help many of the Maryknoll Filipinos who are victims of the tsunami, too.  She also has been up there to minister to them several times.

And please continue to do all you can to alert the whole world about the terrible effects of a nuclear accident – especially the problem of nuclear waste.  I work with children with cancer and it just breaks my heart to think how many more children are threatened with getting cancer because of this accident.

 – Sister Kathleen Reiley, MM

Tonight’s news interviews with Japanese spokesmen for the Fukushima nuclear reactor plant took great effort to reassure the people. But even though their chart stated that the microsieverts are only twice that of a chest X-ray, I figure that an X-ray doesn’t harm you because it only takes a second, but they were telling people they would have to be outdoors for a couple of days to be in danger. And that if people just cover their mouth and nose with a disposable mask and wear a hat and gloves, they’ll be okay.

Today, the trains were running pretty much on schedule, although fewer in number. On my way home, I was standing on the platform waiting for the westbound JR Sobu Line train, and looking across the tracks to the people on the opposite platform, I calculated about 800 to 1,000 folks waiting for an eastbound train. That gives you an idea of the backup.

At least Rita Burdzy, another Maryknoll Sister, and I were able to get to Sanyukai for her work in the clinic, with me making miso soup upstairs before going out with four teams to the Riverside Park terrace to deliver cooked rice lunches. We ran a little short or lunches for the more than 300 men and a couple of women lined up to receive the rice.

A lot of these people live on food from convenience stores, but many of the store shelves were empty this week in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami disaster. So I’m sure the folks we met today were pretty hungry. Second Harvest Japan, Charlie McJilton’s food bank organization, usually delivers bread to Sanyuka on Tuesday for us to give to the homeless, but this week they sent their truck up to the disaster area as the people in those shelters are surviving on hardly anything.

The main problem besides rubble clearance and opening roads is the shortage of gasoline for transportation of goods and people and the shortage of heating oil and fuel for cooking. Three ships from Hokkaido were on their way but had to turn back because they couldn’t find a place to dock. They will try going on the Japan Sea side instead of the nearer but damaged Pacific coast, then overland. By Thursday, some roads will be open, and the Sendai airport should be usable again. That was good news.

Back at Kichijoji tonight, more stores were open and restocked today. Seiyu department store’s basement supermarket, which was half-empty of stock supplies yesterday, had eggs and a couple dozen loaves of bread today, which brings hope that more of the staples will arrive. What shocked me, however, was that many delicatessens and fancy bakery goods were being sold today. I guess those high-class companies have insured their stocks of dairy products, flour and sugar. They must have heeded the words of Marie Antoinette

All that kept running through my head on the way home was the scripture passage from Luke 17:28f: “they were buying and selling;…on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.” With the Fukushima nuclear reactors exploding and spewing out radioactive particles in Japan, it sure gave pause to think during these Lenten days.

Tonight, Abby Avelino, another Maryknoll Sister, was called to our parish church in Kichijoji, which will be offering shelter to 42 Filipinos from the stricken areas of Sendai and Fukushima. These adults and their children were coming on a chartered bus, thanks to the assistance of the Philippine Ambassador to Japan and his wife. They will bed down in the tatami room of the parish center. The Catholics of Tokyo’s International Center (CTIC) will provide the funds to cover the expenses while they take refuge in Tokyo. Since Abby will be on duty at the hotline for domestic violence victims tomorrow morning, she asked me to go help with serving breakfast to the refugees after Mass tomorrow morning.

— Sister Rachel Lauze, MM