Fukushima radioactive waste storage starts full operation

This article sounds like they are only building a single story structure, which makes no sense. Make the storage structure multiple stories with ramps for vehicles to travel and deposit waste... duh..

A 5 story facility would elminate the need to acquire more land... Think outside the box.

The optimistic headline is disingenuous. The article tells us: "An estimated 22 million cubic meters of contaminated waste exists in Fukushima, but the facility does not yet have enough capacity to accept all of it, and local residents fear the waste will sit there permanently in the absence of a final disposal site." This does not sound like full operation. It is more like partial operation. And that is being generous.

Just look at past efforts. The tanks to store highly radioactive water were supposed to last only 3 years, they leak and there is not enough. That is why the govt is just throwing it in the sea recently. The tanks are past their use by date, just like many of Japan's reactors. This is a good indication of what to expect from the new storage sites.

The material being "stored" is from decontamination. This radioactive soil, grass and trees is sitting everywhere in decomposing plastic bags. This material doesn't just contain the ionizing radionuclide Cesium. Also other goodies like Strotium and Plutoniun(half life about 1000 years). So storing for 30 years is totally useless.

Also this article seems to suggest that it is ready and measured. There will be no limit to the amounts of this material. Fukushima is still totally out of control. Nothing really has been done. Nobody knows where the corium is, and if found, there is no technology on this planet to deal with it. Why this important, is that every time it rains, snows or there is a big storm, radionuclides just get spread again over the decontaminated areas, meaning it has to be done again, and again, and again...

Kabukilover,

Excellent summary. Thank you for speaking out on this most important subject. Speaking truth to power is every citizens duty.

love christopher

The article only mentions cesium, so put everything in one large building and hope it will last 30 years. Keep it all deep and low. By then one half-life will have passed, and the next generation can decide what to do with the remaining waste. At least it will mostly be in one location.

The above has to be behind government thinking.

Yeah, full operation of an incomplete and insufficient storage site that will cost in excess of 1.6 trillion yen and will take up 1,600 square kilometers of once arable land, which is now only fit for a radioactive waste dump. Tell me again how nuclear power is cheap and safe.

Edit: 160 square kilomters of land.

@LandofExcuses _ Do you live in Japan? If so why? It is a dangerous place it seems.

Regarding this operation - I hope the landowners are getting a premium for this land - enough to compensate them for all costs (including resettlement, loss of income, etc.) and then the lawsuit pays them more.

The true victims here are those living in this area

Thank you Christopher. Many good points have been made here. This article is interesting in that it has a smily face title while its contents are generally bleak. I guess this is how you get past Abe's watchdogs.

Hanford nuclear waste facility has multiple stories mostly underground and it is a permanent site. Whomever is in charge of this project needs to get serious. 30 year storage facility is beyond irresponsible. Like placing radioactive waste bags along the coastline, rivers and streams to be washed away by heavy rainfall.

Oh, good old Hanford NPP, birth of the nuclear bomb. Still being cleaned up, so this may give a little insight on what to expect here.

Citing the 2014 Hanford Lifecycle Scope Schedule and Cost report, the 2014 estimated cost of the remaining Hanford clean up is $113.6 billion – more than $3 billion per year for the next six years, with a lower cost projection of approximately $2 billion per year until 2046. About 11,000 workers are on site to consolidate, clean up, and mitigate waste, contaminated buildings, and contaminated soil. Originally scheduled to be complete within thirty years, the cleanup was less than half finished by 2008. Of the four areas that were formally listed as Superfund sites on October 4, 1989, only one has been removed from the list following cleanup.