Decontamination - Not so obvious

July 27, 2012

Decontamination begins in Fukushima

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120727_25.html

Japan's government has begun removing soil and other items contaminated by radioactive substances released during last year's nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

The work began on Friday in a part of Tamura City that was reclassified in April from a no-go zone to one where residents could return to live in the near future.

The government-led efforts are the first to be carried out in a former no-entry zone.

Workers gathered fallen leaves and cut weeds at shrines and graveyards in the area.

Residents asked that such places be decontaminated first to allow visits to family graves during the upcoming Buddhist Bon holidays.

Residents also took part in the work, saying they want to return to the community as soon as possible.

The Environment Ministry says about 400 houses in Tamura City will be decontaminated, along with 420 hectares of farmland and forests. The work is to finish by the end of March next year.

The government is taking charge of decontamination in 11 municipalities in a 20-kilometer no-entry zone and other places where evacuation was advised.

The municipalities have yet to secure enough sites to temporarily store contaminated soil and other waste to be collected.

Environment Minister Goshi Hosono told reporters that the government wants to begin decontamination work as soon as possible at municipalities other than Tamura City.

Decontamination work begins in Fukushima Prefecture city amid concerns over incinerator plans

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20120727p2a00m0na010000c.html

TAMURA, Fukushima -- Full-scale decontamination work under state jurisdiction began July 27 in the Miyakoji district in this Fukushima prefectural city of Tamura while an Environment Ministry plan to build a temporary incinerator is still up in the air due to opposition from local residents.

The decontamination work represents the first state-sponsored project to decontaminate areas within 20 kilometers of the crippled Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant.

But local residents are up in arms over the Environment Ministry's plan to install a temporary incinerator to burn decontaminated waste due to possible safety worries, and claim a briefing on the project was held only one month ago.

According to Miyakoji district residents and others, the ministry's Fukushima environmental revival office held a briefing on decontamination work for district residents on June 9. But ministry officials made no mention of the incinerator project on private land and revealed the project only during a meeting with district executives after the briefing. The Fukushima office said the ministry has won consent from landowners but some district executives demanded a briefing on the project for district residents.

The Fukushima office held a briefing on the incinerator project for district residents on June 24. Officials from the office explained that the incinerator will be equipped with a bag filter to remove particles inside exhaust gas and radioactive cesium will be below detection limits. They said the incinerator will become operational in October but residents around the proposed site balked, saying cesium will be concentrated and pose a danger if decontaminated waste is burned.

The office held another briefing on July 20 and sought residents' understanding by citing a verification report on an incinerator equipped with a bag filter released by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in late June. Fukushima office officials said that cesium will be absorbed through a bag filter and a temporary storage site will need to be up to 100 times bigger than the proposed site if decontaminated waste is not burned.

Some residents signaled a willingness to go along with the incinerator project but many others rejected it, saying the Environment Ministry is taking advantage of residents' desire to see decontamination work start early. The project is also causing a rift among residents.

A spokesman for the Fukushima office told the Mainichi Shimbun, "It is true that residents were surprised at the briefing on the project but we never covered it up. We have to consider extending a temporary storage site (if the projected incinerator is not built)."

Environment Ministry officials say the ongoing decontamination work will cover about 480 hectares of residential areas, roads and arable land out of about 4,200 hectares, excluding forests and other plots of land, which account for 80 percent of the district.

A joint venture of Kajima Corp., Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. and Hitachi Plant Technologies Ltd. have won the decontamination order for about 3.3 billion yen. Decontamination work will continue through March next year.

Kazuhiro Tsuboi, 64, who lives in temporary housing in the city, hailed the start of decontamination work as a big step forward toward returning to his home. But he also said, "I have lingering worries about if the radiation level will really go down and even if it temporarily drops, the area may be contaminated again because of the forests."