Japan's new crisis: radioactive waste disposal

There is little if anything anyone can do except hope that the people running this clusterfruck eventually get it right. The lack of "transparency" should have (unfortunately) been expected, and I for one would love to see the Japanese people as a whole get off their butts and start holding those responsible in government AND the private sector to higher standards of openness and honesty in what information is passed along to the public.

If they can't do the job right, then send them packing.

However, knowing that it would never occur just makes the situation all that more depressing.

There's an entire area of Japan closed off for the foreseeable future. It would seem that would be a pretty good storage space to start with.

All the concrete buildings in Tokyo are now irradiated too. What will they do with them in the future?

All the concrete buildings in Tokyo are now irradiated too. What will they do with them in the future?

Turn them on instead of Christmas lights, should be quite the glow.

Dump it in the sea? I mean, that's basically what they do with everything else, no?

@Yubaru

There is little if anything anyone can do except hope that the people running this clusterfruck eventually get it right. The lack of "transparency" should have (unfortunately) been expected, and I for one would love to see the Japanese people as a whole get off their butts and start holding those responsible in government AND the private sector to higher standards of openness and honesty in what information is passed along to the public.

If they can't do the job right, then send them packing.

However, knowing that it would never occur just makes the situation all that more depressing.

You said it all, my friend. (^_^)

Thank you (blushing here) Blue!

It's not 'irradiated waste' it is 'radioactive waste'. There is a massive difference between the two.

They have been sending NW to France for years in covert ships, so why worry about it now. All b**locks.

First of all, "Japan has made big strides toward stabilizing its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant" is a bald-faced lie. They don't know where or in what condition the melted fuel is. Fission events are continuing, as has long been rumoured and has recently been admitted. Second, they have a plan for the waste disposal already. They are bringing it to Tokyo to burn and throw in the bay. And they are feeding it to school children at lunch.

Agree with Farmboy, this has become a problem for our whole planet and we have to work it out all together. Nice pic of Hosono :)

Whatever they do, hope they don't send it to Tokyo as they did with all the trash that has to be burned. Probably every other city, town and village is hoping the same thing ...

BlueWitch...dump it in the sea? You should change your name to Dumb Bitch. You must surely know what that would do to the seafood we eat. Burning in Tokyo too? Are these Japanese people mad? Fortunately after 20 years here, I have organized qualifications and an exit plan for my wife and 2 young children. Will be watching these continual fcuk ups from afar...

send it all to the uninhabited islands that are in dispute with china. let us see if they want them then.

I thought the IAEA visited recently to advise them on decontamination? I don't want to nit-pick or anything, but it's been nearly NINE MONTHS NOW. Stop dragging your feet TEPCO and request some help from overseas if necessary. And Hosono, kick them up the @*se and stop accepting excuses. And Noda, kick Hosono for good measure too.

“We still don’t have a full picture of how to deal with the waste,” he said. “It would require research and development that may take years. For instance, we still need to develop technology to compress the volume of the huge amounts of waste that we cannot move around.”

Not encouraging in a country well-known for not being able to really grasp the scope of problems and being able to agree on a radical way to deal with them -- because too much focus is on process and gaining consensus. Especially since the country is basically broke.

Let's AGAIN say: Japan, we have thousands, THOUSANDS of islands... construct, secure, deposit. Ah-men.

This is not a "new" crisis. Why must news agencies have a narrative? There's been a radioactive waste crisis since there's been radioactive waste - since March.

This is not a "New Crisis". It has been a crisis since MAR 11.

send it all to the uninhabited islands that are in dispute with china. let us see if they want them then.

but will Japan still want them if China doesn't?

9 months and NOW the talk begins about waist, can see this one popping up again in the news over the next 9YEARS+