City in Shizuoka starts test incineration of tsunami debris

I know there is the whole fear of contaminated debris but I can't believe that almost a year on from the disaster there is still tons and tons of debris that need destroying.

Mayor Sakurai's family is in the business of waste disposal management, The state-of-the-art melting furnace of Shimada City in Shizuoka Prefecture is located right in the middle of tea plantations. Why would they build it in the middle of the Tea Plantation? Anyway Good Luck, I hope the contamination is very very very Low.

By these incinerations they're creating mini Fukushimas all over Japan. Not good.

When will Japan stop poll luring the environment?

instead of burning debris, they should be looking into recycleing and creative reuse of materials

Current plans are for Tokyo to incinerate 50,000 tons of debris from Miyagi Prefevture in 16 wards in Tokyo this year.

And what are the current plans to ensure that no radiation is emitted from these incinerators?

instead of burning debris, they should be looking into recycleing and creative reuse of materials

Really? You realize that burning doesn't eliminate radiation, nor does recycling or reuse of materials. You can only try and contain radiation. Dispersal by dilution is a risky business.

Hope the Mayor enjoys his profits while his constituents lose their tea and tourism businesses. Every living soul in Shimazu and the Shizuoka Tourism agency should march right down and protest and blockade and everything else to prevent this travesty. What a tragedy to witness this destruction of centuries of hard work by people just to profit a few. Leave the mountains of trash where it is and come back in a few centuries. There are better things to be doing.

History books of the future show that lax attitudes and caution about radioactive contamination led to widespread incineration of contaminated materials. Things were marked as safe for burning so that profits could be made. Japan became as popular a tourist destination as Chernobyl, Ukrainian SSR. The number of children plummeted, while the number of birth defects increased.

Most future historians agree that there was no need to burn any of it, as landfill space could easily have been made in those rural areas hit by the tsunami. They will also agree that it was simply a desire to make money off of the incinerators by contractors and politicians.

Luckily my radiation detector gives much more accurate readings than tea-racket protecting local officials that just might have as much expertice as the former head of NISA about radiation matters and as much integrity as my breakfast.

Well, the taller the chimney, the further the pollution travels before falling to the ground. But I doubt a chimney the size of Skytree would be enough to clear all "Made in Shizuoka" tea. This is a bad PR move.

I know state-of-the-art incinerators can separate quite a lot of particle matter from the smoke, but I don't know anything about what kind of incinerator is actually being used and how effective it is. Chernobyl taught me to play it safe, so bye-bye Shizuoka produce, unfortunately. The biggest mistake is to send the wrong message of support to those affected.

The beginning of the end. And Japan wants to host the Olympics in 2020?

as long as it is from outside of the contaminated areas, I do not see any issue with this project at all. It seems silly to me that so many prefectures are unwilling to help their fellow citizens in this grave matter...

The whole of eastern Tohoku is contaminated to some extent. But that aside, yes, the first lorries of waste may contain uncontaminated (so far as that is true) material, and it will all be tested to show that it isn't harmful, right? Now, when people have gotten used to the lorries of waste coming in on a regular basis, who's to say that these won't contain something more harmful from closer to the source of the accident? I'm sure the authorities wouldn't do that, or try and cover it up though. After all, they have been completely truthful with us so far, haven't they?

There goes another prefecture to the do-not-purchase-from red list... Getting harder and harder to find fresh produce where one can feel relatively safe...

Why do government officials insist on treating their people's safety like a game of Russian Roulette?

Share the " wealth ". we are all in it together now.

@ Ted Barrera Why do government officials insist on treating their people's safety like a game of Russian Roulette?

Because they can, and because the Japanese are brought up to think in certain ways and behave in certain ways no matter what, so they won't complain. You can see the real face of Japan coming out now - forcing farmers to till radioactive land; people being cajoled into returning to radioactive areas because it sets a bad example if they don't etc. The medieval metality persists, but hey, folks the stakes are a lot higher now. They are playing with radiation and people's lives. This isn't a matter of face or honor - it's a matter of life and death. Russian Roulette is less of a risk. You have a five-in-six chance of surviving; if you are exposed to radioactivity, you are going to be affected. Period.