Transfer of radioactive soil

March 11, 2015

Transfer of tainted Fukushima soil to begin

Nuclear & Energy

Mar. 11, 2015 - Updated 11:02 UTC+1

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150311_24.html

Workers will begin transferring soil and debris collected during decontamination efforts to an intermediate storage facility in Fukushima Prefecture on Friday. The material was tainted by fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and is being kept at initial storage sites in the prefecture.

The government began building the intermediate storage facility last month in an area straddling the towns of Futaba and Okuma.

Environmental and local officials say 54 of the 59 municipalities in the prefecture are storing soil and debris contaminated by nuclear fallout. 43 of those municipalities are hosting about 1,050 initial storage sites.

Soil and debris are also being stored at about 86,000 other sites, such as yards and parking lots. It was estimated at the end of January that sites in the prefecture are storing about 6.6 million cubic meters of contaminated material.

The Environment Ministry in Tokyo wants to speed up the transfer to the intermediate storage facility to remove all the material from the initial storage sites.

The government plans to move up to 22 million cubic meters of soil and debris into a 16-square-kilometer area. But the government has only been able to purchase enough land to accommodate 20,000 cubic meters due to difficult negotiations with landowners.

The ministry says some of the more than 2,300 landowners are reluctant to sell land that has been in their family for generations. It says others are unhappy with the amount of compensation offered.

Authorities don't know how long the toxic soil and debris must remain at the initial storage sites.

Despite the uncertainties, the government must dispose of the contaminated soil and debris outside Fukushima Prefecture within 30 years of initial storage.