The Japanese government said Friday it will aim to decide by next spring on a plan for how to recycle or dispose of soil in Fukushima Prefecture that was removed during the cleanup following the 2011 nuclear disaster.
"It is an issue that Japan should tackle as a whole," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told the first ministerial meeting held to discuss the situation.
About 14 million cubic meters of soil is currently piled up along with other radioactive waste at an interim storage facility near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex which was crippled by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The final disposal site of the soil is yet to be determined.
Soil with high radiation levels that cannot be recycled is scheduled to be disposed of outside the northeastern prefecture under law by March 2045. But amid a lack of a roadmap, Fukushima Gov Masao Uchibori has urged the central government to swiftly craft one.
Japan plans to recycle soil with low radioactivity, or up to 8,000 becquerels per kilogram, using it to form road embankments, among other public works, to reduce the total amount of soil that eventually needs to be dealt with.
Nuclear reactors at the seaside power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc suffered meltdowns following the March 2011 natural disaster, spewing massive amounts of radioactive materials into the air and resulting in contamination of land in the vicinity.
© KYODO
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Aoi Azuuri
Deceptive LDP government who values to immediately reduce cost for corporations than safe of citizen uses fading memories of nuclear disaster and false safety myth as if diluted radioactivity is safe.
And, they ignore health damages that nuclear disaster caused or long term risk to health, intend to spread immense radioactive contaminated soil to nationwide.
Those will flow out whenever heavy rain or landslides that frequently occur in recent years, its radioactivity will more contaminate water resources, agricultural products and Japanese food.
sakurasuki
Japan has so many abandoned inhabited places that can be used for final dump for those waste.
Instead localized into one place, Japan plan to spread all over Japan? Weird but that's Japan.
wallace
The soil should remain where it is within 30 kg of the nuclear site. Makes no sense to move it.
factchecker
The soil should remain where it is within 30 kg of the nuclear site. Makes no sense to move it.
True, but there's kickbacks at stake for those involved in the logistics of it.
Japan has so many abandoned inhabited places that can be used for final dump for those waste.
Not sure it will fit within the average Jimin politicians head, but a nice thought.
wallace
The contaminated soil is easier to monitor if it remains in one place. Mostly low-level radiation. There are many off-limit areas within the 30 kg from the nuclear site. There is also the high grade of highly radioactive waste from the nuclear plant.
WoodyLee
People are living across the street from it, Nice Photo, Nice Site.
HopeSpringsEternal
Not in My Backyard!!
wallace
The whole world is contaminated with radiation from all the atomic bomb testing. Europe is contaminated by Chernobyl.
They are abandoned homes after the nuclear meltdowns.
Jtsnose
. . . what if it were possible to reduce the weight of the contaminated soil so that only the most dangerous elements remained in a lighter form, then place the reduced contaminated remains in a rocket ship sealed capsule which could be placed in the outer reaches of the solar system . . . deep in outer space . . . .
wallace
The low-level contaminated soil is the least of the problems when compared to the spent nuclear fuel that lasts thousands of years. And the massive amount of high-level waste coming soon from this plant and the 20 reactors being decommissioned.
Jtsnose
. . . thinking about using soil "with low radioactivity" for road embankments . . . hope authorities are considering the effects of rain runoff, and rainwater flowing into the surrounding soil, perhaps making its way into aquifers affecting other parts of Japan which could lead to spreading contamination . . . .
Jtsnose
. . . . other locations to consider for recycling or disposal should consider remote, uninhabited regions of the Earth which are not used for agriculture . . . . incl. S. Pole . . . .
wallace
The storage areas are purpose-built. They have rubber-sealed groundwork. Each site is then covered with a white construction building.
The level of radiation is very low.