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Nowhere to put nuclear waste

49 Comments

Black plastic bags containing irradiated soil, leaves and debris from the decontamination operation are dumped at a seaside devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tomioka town, Fukushima Prefecture, near Tokyo Electric Power Co's (TEPCO) tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Every day, teams of workers blast roads with water, scrub down houses, cut branches and scrape contaminated soil off farmland. That radiated trash now sits in plastic sacks across the region, piling up in abandoned rice paddies, parking lots and even residents' backyards.

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49 Comments
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wheres the IAEA when you need them?

10 ( +11 / -1 )

That radiated trash now sits in plastic sacks across the region, piling up in abandoned rice paddies, parking lots and even residents’ backyards. & dumped at the beaches, knowing that much of it will wash directly into the ocean.

So they are cleaning up contaminated materials (in Fukushima), just to redistribute it throughout Fukushima?

9 ( +9 / -0 )

Every day, teams of workers blast roads with water, scrub down houses, cut branches and scrape contaminated soil off farmland.

All this will wash out to sea with the first typhoon.

The whole cleanup effort is just another example of the Japanese government's form-over-function "gambarimasu" response to every crisis that comes their way — showing the public that they are pouring cash and countless man hours into taking action, even if that action delivers absolutely no positive outcome. Smoke and mirrors.

13 ( +13 / -0 )

What the hell?

Those are going straight into the ocean during the next big storm.

What's the point of building the pipes and ice walls around the nuclear plant if they're going to dump radioactive waste straight into the ocean anyway?

11 ( +11 / -0 )

And there lies the problem with nuclear energy! The headline says it all. Even when running well nuclear plants generate waste. How many more decades can we ignore the where, how, and when to dispose of it. Spent fuel cells are pilling up with no absolutely safe storage or disposal.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Strangely, I've suspected the contaminated water leaks were not entirely unforeseen. A convenient disposal method.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Waste of time, effort and money. Disgusting abuse of tax payers money, the yakuza making cash, people exploited and the poor --literally-- living in temporary housing going mad, getting fat, and kids not playing outside. All under control? Not in helL's chance.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I was scrolling around the highway, the nuclear plant, and the road north of the plant and saw the brown bags north of there, on the beach. But there were signs in Japanese, evidently warning people off. The Google map vehicle stopped short of going past the signs and getting close enough to tell what the brown things were.

In fact it was here (http://goo.gl/maps/JQlOe), and there is a large freshly-scraped area south of it (http://goo.gl/maps/yJufG).

I wonder what it was, that it landed that far north of the plant but they still have to scrape it up so urgently. Unless it's a commercial faction hoping to rebuild something.

(Found some OCR apps on the web, but they'll only do photos of text (books, etc.), not text from photos of landscapes.)

This appears to be another collection point for the bags, it is still on the coast, though, a few hundred yards from the beach. Got a fence around it to deter radioactive debris thieves. It's north of the nuclear plant, south of the site linked above: http://goo.gl/maps/b7wO6

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Maybe they could dump it all on the Senkaku islands? It would make the territorial claims an even greater circus.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This makes me sad to see. Such an advanced country and still 4 years after the earthquake no solution to anything. bah!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@Speed

You are exactly right. They will blow into the ocean during the next big storm. At which time TEPCO and Japan's government will respond with this

Sorry folks! We didn't intentionally dump that radiation into the ocean. There was a strong storm and it blew a lot of leaves and soil into the ocean. Nature did that.

You won't find any bags because they are set to dissolve as soon as they hit the saltwater.

Best thing one could do is to send these photos to Hawaii's local EPA and let them respond to it.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

That radiated trash now sits in plastic sacks across the region, piling up in abandoned rice paddies, parking lots and even residents’ backyards.

Amazing that this is the best the "world's third largest economy" can do, and a country that prides itself on its ability to handle crisis -- a bunch of Glad bags. Bet they are paying some contractor with LDP connections 10,000 yen a bag too.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

High tech Japan. Plastic bags....full of nuke waste.** Plastic....bags.......

**

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I think you'll find that the picture shows Chinese rubbish that has been washed up. Everyone knows that all rubbish on Japanese beaches comes from China.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

That government will affect us all if left unchecked. Historically people's welfare has never been a major part of their concern!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

That is f#$#g disgraceful!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Penfold, why, stuck to the spot via the weight they carry from the subsidies they stuff their pockets with. Our taxes. That's where the nuke industry is, fat and rich, not moving an inch.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Send it to space.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Don't worry about the bags going into the ocean. You can bet that, many of those bags have holes in them and every time it rains the radioactive materials are leeching into the sea. I've surfed the east coast of Japan for many years and know that the seaside has always been used as a place to dump garbage. This is no surprise to me!

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Welcome to nuclear power, the clean energy source. Until you have to clean up the waste.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Why I am living in this country again?

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Like the paper pushers in Tokyo, they are just shifting the radiation around the country. Brilliant.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

The more we see, the more we hear ... the scarier it gets up there around the destroyed Fukushima nuclear reactors. And that is one scary picture ...

Radiation everywhere ...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Sums up the slapdash and frankly amateurish approach to this matter. or maybe we are learning that nuclear power is just not manageable when things go wrong.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Put it in TEPCO headquarters, and have the execs store some in their homes.... You know, since it's no problem and safe nd all.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

This makes me sad to see. Such an advanced country and still 4 years after the earthquake no solution to anything. bah!

"Advanced country"?

4 ( +5 / -1 )

WTF! What morons thought putting this stuff right on a BEACH would be ok!!

And this picture gives a whole NEW MEANING to the term Dirty Bomb!!!!

These idiotic de-contamination BS needs to stop, we are now in the middle of another aspect of this disaster & that's the govts flagrant waste of of taxes to enrich the yaks & politicians & moving all this crap around will do NOTHING for the people of Fukushima, Japan have you no shame?? No need to answer we already know ............ seriously messd up!

4 ( +5 / -1 )

The IAEA mission is the promotion of the safe use of nuclear power and dealing with nuclear proliferation. Cleaning up the environment is not on their horizon...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Just google: 福島の放射線廃棄物の写真

There you begin to get an idea of the scale of things. Resuspension, read up on that too. It's a mess.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Maybe TEPCO should get in touch with Professor Gibb at Sheffield University in the UK. And just maybe TEPCO should be enlisting more international help to deal with these problems. Could it be that there is something inherent in Japanese culture that prevents admitting being incapable of solving a situation and asking for help from "outsiders"? Everything to do with this company still seems to smack of negligence and inefficiency.

http://www.shef.ac.uk/research/impact/stories/fce/3

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Why are they sitting on the beach? Didn't anyone learn about putting nuclear ANYTHING near the ocean?

This is essentially dumping into the ocean come rainy season next month!

4 ( +4 / -0 )

@Gogo, every time it rains in Tohoku, well, rain runs off the land into rivers and rivers go to the... QED

0 ( +0 / -0 )

We are a lot more resistant to radiation than people think. JUst dump it all in the ocean. It is huge.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Jeezus, are they criminally insane?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Just wait until they decide to classify all of this as a state secret under the new state secrets law.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

You can even see drift wood next too the bags so it's clearly obviously the water gets to the level of these bags.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Just wait until they decide to classify all of this as a state secret under the new state secrets law.

This is exactly why the state secrets law was implemeted.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

gogogo: You can even see drift wood next too the bags so it's clearly obviously the water gets to the level of these bags.

Maybe the workers left the driftwood outside the bags so it wouldn't poke through. They're on a sand pad with a retaining wall.

I think the photographer was not too far north of the nuclear plant.

Another google street view of the bags, in Tomioka (same town referenced in the photo caption) plus workers: http://goo.gl/maps/eZ5rb

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I'm glad JT has actually provided a picture of this, though I feel it should be a top story in every newspaper.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@onagamo:

Yes, but they claim it was for other reasons. Right?

Undoubtedly as the '20 Olympics draw closer, one could imagine them actually carrying through and invoking this law.

Hope journalists have their drones fueled up and ready to go, in case they no longer can get access.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

So, the Prime Minister call this "Under control" and IOC decided to have 2020 Olympic in Tokyo...

How safe is Tokyo ?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Being on the beach only create an instinct that some, if not many, may have already found their way down the ocean. Are we to wait how many years for some kind of impacts?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It was on NHK tonight. Those are not plastic bags in the usual sense, they are heavy-duty with straps for cranes to lift them. It's taking 200 dump trucks an hour to move the stuff. It's going to take some time.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Fukushima Daichi is still leaking radiated water. The site itself is still contaminated. This is so far from being finished. I am glad that there are photos that only minimally hint at the enormous tasks that remain. But will the authorities be transparent?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

we hope the Black Plastic Bags are strong enough to hold the soli for 128 years.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

30% of nuc energy, maybe means 30 % of GDP from now on wars...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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