IEEE Spectrum - North American - March 2014 - 4

BacK StorY_
Editor in chiEf

Susan Hassler, s.hassler@ieee.org
ExEcutivE Editor

Glenn Zorpette, g.zorpette@ieee.org
Editorial dirEctor, digital

Harry Goldstein, h.goldstein@ieee.org
Managing Editor

Elizabeth A. Bretz, e.bretz@ieee.org
SEnior art dirEctor

Mark Montgomery, m.montgomery@ieee.org
SEnior EditorS

Stephen Cass (Resources), cass.s@ieee.org
Erico Guizzo (Digital), e.guizzo@ieee.org
Jean Kumagai, j.kumagai@ieee.org
Samuel K. Moore (News), s.k.moore@ieee.org
Tekla S. Perry, t.perry@ieee.org
Joshua J. Romero (Interactive), j.j.romero@ieee.org
Philip E. Ross, p.ross@ieee.org
David Schneider, d.a.schneider@ieee.org
dEputy art dirEctor Brandon Palacio
photography dirEctor Randi Klett
aSSociatE art dirEctor Erik Vrielink
aSSociatE EditorS

Ariel Bleicher, a.bleicher@ieee.org
Rachel Courtland, r.courtland@ieee.org
Celia Gorman (Multimedia), celia.gorman@ieee.org
Eliza Strickland, e.strickland@ieee.org
aSSiStant Editor Willie D. Jones, w.jones@ieee.org
SEnior copy Editor Joseph N. Levine, j.levine@ieee.org
copy Editor Michele Kogon, m.kogon@ieee.org
Editorial rESEarchEr Alan Gardner, a.gardner@ieee.org
ExEcutivE producEr, SpEctruM radio
aSSiStant producEr, SpEctruM radio

In the Hot Zone

adMiniStrativE aSSiStantS

Ramona Foster, r.foster@ieee.org
Nancy T. Hantman, n.hantman@ieee.org

eporting in a n uclea r fallout zone is not easy, as Associate Editor Eliza Strickland discovered during a trip to Japan's
Fukushima Prefecture. Strickland [at left] visited the region's
evacuated ghost towns while on assignment for "Fukushima's
Next 40 Years," in this issue. The article describes the monumental task of decommissioning the ruined Fukushima Daiichi
nuclear power plant, which experienced meltdowns in three of
its six reactors after a tsunami in March 2011.
The town of Okuma, just a few kilometers from the blasted reactors, is far
too radioactive for its former inhabitants to return. In one hot spot, a yearround resident would receive three times the dose considered acceptable for
a Fukushima Daiichi cleanup worker. Nevertheless, two town officials agreed
to take Strickland on a tour. In the photo, the group is seen talking outside a
nursing home that was hastily evacuated during the nuclear emergency.
Even if the power plant is successfully dismantled, the fate of towns like
Okuma is uncertain. Okuma was a prosperous village of 11 500 people before
the accident. For its residents to come back, all of the town's houses, roads,
fields, and woodlands would have to be decontaminated, at a cost that is
now largely incalculable. In the most recent survey of displaced Okuma residents, only 11 percent expressed a strong desire to return to their homes.
During her tour, Strickland was deeply saddened by the sight of abandoned
houses and overgrown rice fields. "The town's mayor told me his family had
lived there for 19 generations," she recalls. "He had such pride in Okuma." n

Mar 2014

north aMerican

SPectrUM.ieee.orG

contributing EditorS

Evan Ackerman, Mark Anderson, John Blau, Robert N.
Charette, Steven Cherry, Peter Fairley, Mark Harris, David
Kushner, Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Prachi Patel,
Richard Stevenson, Lawrence Ulrich, Paul Wallich
dirEctor, pEriodicalS production SErvicES Peter Tuohy
Editorial & WEb production ManagEr Roy Carubia
SEnior ElEctronic layout SpEcialiSt Bonnie Nani
SpEctruM onlinE
lEad dEvElopEr Kenneth Liu
WEb production coordinator Jacqueline L. Parker
MultiMEdia production SpEcialiSt Michael Spector
Editorial adviSory board

Susan Hassler, Chair; Gerard A. Alphonse, Francine D. Berman,
Jason Cong*, Sudhir Dixit, Limor Fried, Kenneth Y. Goldberg,
Bin He, Robert Hebner, Chenming Hu*, Grant Jacoby,
Christopher J. James, Norberto Lerendegui, John P. Lewis,
Steve Mann, Jacob Ostergaard, Umit Ozguner, John Rogers,
Jonathan Rothberg, Umar Saif, Gaurav Sharma, Takao Someya,
Sergio Verdú, Jeffrey M. Voas, Kazuo Yano, Larry Zhang*,
Yu Zheng, Kun Zhou
* Chinese-language edition
Editorial / advErtiSing corrESpondEncE

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03.14

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Sharon Basco
Francesco Ferorelli,

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photograph by

Hiroko Aihara

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum - North American - March 2014