Kyoko Sugasawa and Hirohide Sakuma, both Japanese citizens residing near Fukushima Prefecture, will appear at a March 11 event commemorating the one year anniversary of the earthquake that set in motion a now-infamous chain of events leading to nuclear meltdown at multiple reactors.

“With concerned parents, I organized measurement of radioactive contamination in school yards,” says Sugasawa, a resident of Miyagi Prefecture, north of Fukushima, where the failed nuclear plant is located. “We found out that our school grounds are as contaminated as the soil in Fukushima.”

Sakuma was born in Fukushima City, and now lives with his family in Sendai, Miyagi, about 40 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. “As a breadwinner of the house, my mind is constantly debating whether we should evacuate from Sendai,” Sakuma says.

The March 11 event is part commemoration of the Fukushima disaster, where three reactors are still in full meltdown, and part a call for the shuttering of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which has sat idle since a leak in steam generator tubing was discovered in late January. A report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission publicized by the website Enformable yesterday states that defects in the system were discovered in 2009 by manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries prior to delivery.

“At some point, the San Onofre plant must be decommissioned. We believe that time is now,” said Gene Stone, representing Residents Organized for a Safe Environment in San Clemente in a release disseminated by Occupy San Diego activists. “While the plant is shut down for maintenance, we believe this is the right time to start the decommissioning process for the safety of the workers at the plant and the community at large.”