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Miyagi begins testing debris for radioactivity before sending it to other prefectures

54 Comments

The Miyagi prefectural government has started started testing debris from the March 11 tsunami for radioactivity in Ishinomaki City in a bid to assure other prefectures that it is safe to store the rubble for incineration.

Officials on Saturday examined a massive mountain of rubble, said to weigh about 1.5 million tons, NHK reported Sunday. They checked the debris for cesium and other other radioactive elements.

Miyagi prefectural government officials said that all the storage areas are now full and that they need to ask other prefectures to help with disposal. Besides Ishinomaki, the Miyagi prefectural government is testing rubble in Kessenuma and Minami-Sanriku towns and will make the results public by mid-November, NHK reported.

On Friday, the Tokyo metropolitan government said that it had agreed to take 1,000 tons of mostly wood and metal debris next month from disaster-stricken Iwate Prefecture’s Miyako City and that it was also in talks with the Miyagi prefectural government to accept debris from there, too.

Officials said the debris will be measured for radiation on-site before being transported by rail to Tokyo, where it will be tested a second time, and that all test results will be fully disclosed to the public.

However, the Tokyo metropolitan government said Saturday that it had received more than 200 complaints from residents by phone, fax and on its website, opposing the decision due to fears that radioactive substances will escape into the air if contaminated debris is burned, NHK reported.

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54 Comments
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So, they're testing it to assure it's safe, eh? How much do you want to bet that when they find the radioactive elements they are testing for they'll say, "Yes, we found said radioactive elements present, but they are at safe levels" and will send it anyway?

2 ( +6 / -4 )

So, they'll test it once onsite, and regardless of results send it to Tokyo, or what? This is a bit unclear...

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Why do they have to spread the debris elsewhere ? Why can't they keep it in one spot, make a freaking " island " or hill and then make it a restricted zone ?

2 ( +4 / -2 )

The Japanese government assures that everything is all right even though it is not, and I guess that they do so because they do not want Japan to collapse. The youtube videos of people measuring the radiation in various areas of Japan are very frightening indeed. I loved being in Tokyo and in Japan, but I feel reluctant to visit Japan again although I love the country very much because the danger of radiation is no joke. It was such a bad idea to construct nuclear plants near the subduction zones; I do not know what they were thinking.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

zichi: "Better than transporting it out of these areas, a better plan would be to crush all the debris and bury it in a properly built and controlled landfill, covered with the soil contaminated by sea water. Import crushers instead of exporting debris, but my guess it someone wants to make yen?"

That, and the fact that the governors of the affected prefectures want the stuff out instead of doing the right thing and keeping it where it is (contained, of course). There are plenty of spaces no longer habitable (and more they won't admit, in all likelihood), so it makes perfect sense to keep them there instead. But we're not talking sense, we're talking bucks.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

These places have plenty of empty mountain space. Disposing of this stuff in far away prefectures is not good nor necessary at this time. Obviously the priority is neither sense, nor the people, but simply cash. This behavior warrants rebellion.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Why do they have to spread the debris elsewhere ? Why can't they keep it in one spot, make a freaking " island " or hill and then make it a restricted zone ?

or make it a Nuclear Test Site for research purpose.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Debris from March disaster tested for radiation

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/02_01.html

Excerpt: The prefecture plans to measure the radioactivity of debris at 12 storage sites, including those in Kesennuma and Minamisanriku. One official says he hopes the testing will facilitate the transfer of debris to neighboring regions and help reduce the burden on Miyagi Prefecture.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I'd be interested to know why you'd think that some materials are more contaminated than others. Given what I've seen up there I'd go as far as to suggest that you would only need to check 1% of the waste. Assuming that this waste has been stored in mountains that I've seen elsewhere then the most contaminated with radiation will be on the edge of the mountain as they are the bits that would be most exposed. And they should check the middle parts of the mountain as well but that should be all. Secondly, if we can try and remove the don't trust the government can't trust the results from the argument. There are thousands of cars that need destroying, tonnes of rubber, countless other quantities of whatever that is also polluting the environment. The longer that it isn't dealt with, the more environmental damage can be caused. If sharing that waste between other prefectures is the quickest and cleanest way to deal with it then that's what needs to be done. If there are other, better ways then they should be explored but the longer that this waste is not dealt with the worse it is for the environment up there.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The next step will be that the radiation from the debris is too high to burn.But don't worry,that will be mixed with debris of lower radioactive content and burned together.Also,remember that the government can always raise the level and make it 'safe' to burn.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

First of all, I know all about the maps etc but we're not talking about taking waste from different parts of the prefecture. We're talking about buildings, cars etc that were left in the aftermath of the tsunami. For months they sat where they were left so it's fair to assume that there's been a uniformed pattern of contamination. It was subsequently piled tens of metres high, hundreds of metres long. The outer part will have been exposed to the elements for longer and this is more likely to be contaminated for longer and therefore have more contamination. For at least 3 months much of this mountain of waste would have been protected by the other waste on top. So it's fair to assume that if the outer waste is not badly contaminated then the middle won't be.

There's a lot of conjecture as to what kind of waste it is and what the side effects will be. But what shouldn't be open to question is that this shouldn't be left exposed to the elements and the longer that it is the worse it would be. I can understand why people wouldn't want to live near somewhere that is treating this waste but then again I've never understood why anyone would choose to live there anyway.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Zichi,

As you know, I've been up in the area and I was there in March so I am aware of what is up there. I'm also aware of the asbestis and I'm sure there's a lot of other nasty stuff up there.

And you more or less echo my point on the mountain. It was all exposed for the first 3 months so there's no reason to expect that the waste in the middle of the mountain is mountain is more exposed than that on the outside. Therefore if the outside is safe then it's fair to assume that the middle will be.

This waste needs to be dealt with quicky but given the size of this disaster it's hardly surprising that the prefectures need help disposing of that waste.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Zichi is spot on. To me the big certainty is that this contains a soup of toxins. Public service workers up there are pretty much unanimous about that too. The basic soup will include asbestos, sewage, and any kind of toxins that you will find in any kind of car engines. Anyone who's done drain cleaning or cleaning out under people's houses in tsunami areas knows what this is like. There is black gloopy gunk that spread over everything. That much, combined with pictures showing the force of the tsunami, will tell you that any and every toxin that was already in the environment was generously spread over the whole tsunami area, and over everything. You burn timbers from a house, they're soaked in this soup. The radiation is the icing on the cake. We know enough to know we don't know enough about concentrations of different isotopes, but speculation about levels on the outside or in the middle of the mountain are no more than that. In the week or two immediately after the Daichi explosions, it was snowing up there. The debris would have been coated in whatever the snow brought down, and when the snow melted it would have soaked down through everything. My speculation is that some debris is going to have very high concentrations, and some very low, so random sampling of a small amount is unscientific and meaningless. That's why it all needs to be treated as toxic waste, moved as little as possible, and NOT BURNT!!! This is obvious, and that anyone is even considering doing business out of this massive public health threat, spreading it around and incinerating it tells you just how morally bankrupt the government is.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

My point is that this waste is sitting outside exposed to the elements and polluting on a daily basis. We're all worried about the effects of radiation but there seems to be little concern with regards to the numerous chemicals and metals that are polluting the atmosphere up there. I'm not impatient as far as the rebuilding goes and in fact I was delighted the last time I was in Rikuzentakata at the amount stuff that had been done. But leaving this ways to be exposed to th elements is not a good thing.

And as I said before IF the quickest AND cleanest way to dispose of it is to move it to areas that can de with it then they should do that. If there are alternatives that deal with it quicker and cleaner then that's what should be done.

But leaving it is very bad.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

There is denial on a massive scale going on here, both on the health hazards of the waste, and the fact that local governments are too scared to say that huge tracts of land are not going to suitable either for living on or for cultivating. Some coastal areas, for example in Ishinomaki, are now a metre lower than they were, and should be considered unviable for settlement. That people in those areas want the debris out of sight is understandable, but the considerations should be based on the potential public health risk, flooding or earthquake risk, and on the economic practicality of making the land usable for whatever they want to use it for. Considering depopulation in general of those areas, and the loss of tax revenues that this implies, along with the ageing population, they need to be realistic about the kind of public works projects, such as draining land and then building up the level, never mind decontaminating it, that they can take on. And that's without even starting to consider the radiation issue. Looked at in this way, the unholy haste to get all the debris out of Tohoku seems even more meaningless and impractical.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

As much as distributing the soil nationwide seems an unfavorable option it is actually quite a sensible option.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I'm interested to know why a decision like this is being made at the prefectural level and not at the national level. As soon as multiple prefectures are involved (in the transfer of anything), it should be governed by national policy, not ad hoc local policies.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

This is an ill thought out 'solution'. As other posters, notably Zichi, have written, this debris is full of toxic waste, from fuel oil to asbestos, to numerous other carcinogens that will poison water tables, soils and air. This HAS to be prevented.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Radiation is only dangerious ib concentrated doses, including cesium. People are exposed to radiation everyday in baryong levels. Gees! Even your smoke detectors operate in radioactive cloud. Breaking down the intensity of the radiation is wise and should be welcomed. Japan is a small nation and cannot afford to lose the few hundred square klms of land in the exlusion zone.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Why dont they just build new power stations and burn the debris to make electricity? That seems to be the best solution. That way, they will be able to produce cheaper electricity and also help the earth`s environment by producing more wonderful CO2 gases, instead of less. As you will gather, I am not a believer in the new religion of anthropogenic global warming. I think nuclear power plants should be closed down and replaced by fossil fuel plants.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

They will probably say that the results that they find will not cause any immediate effects without mentioning about the long term effects. And after that, they will probably spread the debris all over Japan while trying their best to keep everything a secret.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Admittedly speaking out of some ignorance, and only going by what I have seen in pictures in the affected region, but generally, Japan has very little 'flat' land for building or agriculture. The easiest place to store debris temporarily would most likely be fields or open spaces that now need to be used to either build homes for people displaced by the tsunami, or to restart agriculture in the region.

It is futther away from Fukushima than Tokyo, but of course it is upwind. Hence by all means test, and if anything wrong, then deal with it appropriately, otherwise we should help the region get back on its feet again.

I think most people would agree that the response hasn't been quick enough.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I think Smith has a good point if I understood it correctly:

If the debris is so harmless, then why are they so desperate to get rid of it? It can't just be about space.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Zichi,

Don't you think the people in Minami-Soma should be doing the same? Theyre not using qualified experts in these clean up efforts. The schools are being cleaned by teachers. What do they know about the possible dangers? http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/evacuee-volunteers-join-teachers-in-school-cleanup-in-minami-soma

A few foreigners had the bright idea to go up and do this sort of work in April, not taking the necessary precautions you just mentioned. They also got rained on, were under houses, dug out dirt. I'm not an expert in this field, but seems to me some things should be left to those who are experts or the experts should properly train and then lead willing volunteers who understand the risks (and use proper precautions). This particular building might not have had an asbestos problem, but who knows what was in that soil? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpQeN1c-TZ4

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@Zichi,

As the Crow Flies was saying, there needs to be some realism involved: rebuilding is a good thing if it is well thought, done in areas that will see a big return of people, not be too contaminated for safety and don't just fund endless building projects like went on in the 90's. With a good plan they could avoid the bad area, use the good ones and clean up. I don't think Katrina was beyond the US; they simply didn't try. Many professionals and unemployed, military etc could have been used, but there was no real national campaign to fix the areas. Then, as Naomi Klein and others argue, they exploited it - as in Indonesia - for their own commercial purposes, happily driving out the black communities and doing privatisation of the schools and gentrification. Japan is just as corrupt, and though they use nice rhetoric, it's all empty. Seems they're treating it like World Trade: you can't just clear rubble and rebuild (and I'm simplifying it) and put a building. If they lack the resources, they could divert them from others, clean area by area, and leave the ones beyond their means until they've got enough people trained and ready. Seems they' rather just do PR stunts to me...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It would be nice if Miyagi would test the food for radiation, rather than the debris, although if the debris is considered dangerous what does that say about the surrounding areas?

The media also seem to be ignoring the fact that these piles of debris, often placed next to schools, are full of asbestos. Another fail for the so-called journalists.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@beangry. The size and scale of the devastation meant that it was impossible to leave it to the 'experts'. I'm no truck driver but I've been there a number of times with Aid. Should I have not bothered?

It's totally wrong to say a few foreigners went up without taking the precauitions needed. Actually, perhaps a few went up without the neccesary precautions. But I can assure you that many went up with the correct equipment. As did many, many Japanese. The reason why there's been so much progress is because of the volunteers who have been working with the local government in the areas. Peaceboat, All hands and countless other NPOs have done a fantastic job. And so have the volunteers. Everyone that went up there is a volunteer.

And everyone has known the risks.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

This is an ill thought out 'solution'. As other posters, notably Zichi, have written, this debris is full of toxic waste, from fuel oil to asbestos, to numerous other carcinogens that will poison water tables, soils and air. This HAS to be prevented.

If this is an ill thought out sollution. What would you call it by leaving it where it is. Where it is CURRENTLY poisoning the water tables, soils and air...

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

zichi,

That may be the cleanest but is it the quickest? I'd have thought that given the population in these areas that they wouldn't have the neccesary facilities to do that which would mean building them. Increasing jobs yes, but at what economic cost in the longer term etc.

Also, whilst I agree with your sentiments that it shouldn't be burned, I think you've proven that you understand enough of pollution to realise that air pollution is, for want of a better word, better for dispersal than other forms of radiation. Though if they're going to do that, it would be more favorable to have a huge chimney in the coastal areas and only do it when the wind is going the right way.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Heda.

Is right, got any better suggestions/solutions on how to deal with it. Didn't think so.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

"Hey, wait, we didn't test that pile". "Which one." "That one." "Are you sure? These piles all look alike." "You're right. Maybe I am mistaken." "Yes, you must be mistaken...."

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@HedaMadness

I never said people shouldn't volunteer or that none took precautions; fact is some don't understand the dangers and unknowingly exposed themselves to help others. Nothin wrong with helping provided you understand the risks and take necessary measures to protect your health. I know some who did not do that.

As to peaceboat and other groups they're more connected and usually have better personnel on hand, so I'm not criticising them at all. I'm saying that 6 months ago they should have launched a training programme whereby intl amd local experts rapidly train 500,000 or so volunteers on a small stipend to deal with these problems. Even I might have joined. We can still do it. I want progress just as much as anyone but the govts ad hoc measure will fail, and here are alternatives.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I say keep the soil and debris there. Build over it, then relocate TEPCO and parliament there and give the people displaced the land in Tokyo where TEPCO and parliament are now.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Thumbs up for Ted

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I want to give JapanGal a few thumbs up! Not too sure why Miyagi has to pass their garbage to the rest of Japan.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Hey, here's a crazy idea. Why not leave the debris where it is and MOVE THE PEOPLE who are still living in the contaminated areas, thereby creating a huge hazardous exclusion zone. Then use the money that is earmarked for the transportation of the rubble and debris, incineration of said materials, and the ENORMOUS sums of money slated for 'decontamination' to pay for relocation of these people. Win, win situation from both a financial and humanitarian perspective!! Oh, and as an added bonus, you don't re-contaminate the air with deadly radioactive toxins that will be breathed in by millions of Tokyoites!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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