The radiation levels found in food produced in the Fukushima district are the same as those that can be found in Paris, or Rome. In other words, practically zero. Four years after the accident at the Japanese nuclear power plant, following the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami of 11 March 2011, measurements carried out on rice, water, fish and apples have come in below the strict limits imposed by the Japanese government (ten times lower than in Europe or the United States).

This has been made known by several studies, some of which were conducted by the students of a high school in Fukushima themselves and presented in Milan at the "Fukushima – Food Safety Conference". The results were reported by Professor Ryugo Hayano, professor of Physics at the University of Tokyo, who, following the 2011 disaster, took on the matter in an attempt to provide real-time information, particularly via social networks. In a short time he became one of the 100 most influential scientists on Twitter.

The effects of radiation on food

"To date there have been no deaths linked to high radiation doses," the professor opens his presentation. Of the entire district, which covers 14,000 square kilometres, around 20 square kilometres remain inaccessible to this day due to high levels of radioactivity. But for the first time this year, the radioactivity level detected — of Caesium 134 and 137 — in the 2014 rice harvest has come in below 100 Bq/kg (becquerels per kilogram). The measured values were below 25 Bq/kg, whereas European and American limits are around 1,000 Bq/kg. Since 2012, more than 10 billion rice bags have been measured every year: while in the first year 71 bags were identified with limit values, in 2013 that figure fell to 28, reaching 0 last year. The same applies to fruit and vegetables grown in the area, from apples to peaches, pumpkins and asparagus. By way of comparison, consuming food with a value of 25 Bq/kg daily for a year is equivalent to accumulating as much radioactivity as a single 12-hour Rome–Tokyo flight.

Students keeping watch

It is not only government checks that monitor the situation in Fukushima Prefecture. The students of the city's high school themselves conduct research and experiments, measuring radiation levels inside and outside their school: today levels range from 0.7 to 0.1 mSv (0.1 mSv is equivalent to eating a banana, while a New York–Los Angeles flight measures 40 mSv). "Right after it happened we couldn't go out or go to school," recounts one of the students. "At first I didn't want people to know where I came from because I was scared and confused. Many people believed there was no one left in Fukushima. Today, however, we try to make people understand that the food is safe." To this end, the school itself organises cultural exchanges with high school students from around the world, to spread genuine knowledge of what is happening today in the area affected.

No more nuclear

This does not mean that the area around the reactor is safe, or that there are not or will not be long-term problems. But something has changed since that day, particularly among the younger generations: "I'm still a little scared of the nuclear power plant. If I had the choice, I would not build a reactor, but would focus on clean energy, such as solar, wind and water."