TEPCO reviewed plans to be "realistic"

December 26, 2013

Japan eyes completion of Fukushima radiation cleanup by March 2017

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20131226p2g00m0dm061000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Environment Ministry said Thursday that it now aims to complete radiation cleanup activities in the most seriously contaminated areas outside the accident-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex by the end of March 2017.

The ministry had hoped to finish the work at 11 cities, towns and villages in Fukushima Prefecture by the end of next March, or about three years after the nuclear crisis began. But the schedule has been delayed due to the difficulties of securing enough places to temporarily store the contaminated soil and other waste.

"We reviewed the plans so that they will be realistic. We will proceed with the decontamination work, offering a detailed response to local needs," Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told a press conference.

According to the ministry, seven municipalities, including the cities of Kawamata and Minamisoma, will be unable to finish the cleanup activities by the end of March.

But six of them, excluding the town of Futaba, which hosts the Fukushima Daiichi plant, are expected to complete the work over the next three years, assuming that a sufficient number of temporary storage sites and workers are secured.

The ministry said it plans to prioritize the remediation of residential areas, water and sewage systems and major roads that are important to bring back evacuees to their homes.

The town of Futaba, however, has not been able to compile its decontamination plan and the government said that arrangements will continue.

Areas where evacuation orders are in place are currently divided into three categories based on radiation levels -- a zone where evacuation orders are ready to be lifted, a zone where habitation is restricted and a zone where residents will face difficulties in returning for a long time. The population of these areas totals about 81,000.

About 96 percent of the town of Futaba is designated as a difficult-to-return zone.

To accelerate the sluggish decontamination activities, the government has proposed to Fukushima Prefecture a plan to purchase land around the Fukushima Daiichi complex and elsewhere to build proper storage facilities to keep waste generated in the process.

Under the work flow, waste is first collected at temporary storage sites prepared inside each municipality and will be transferred to the planned storage facilities, where the waste is expected to be stored for up to 30 years.

But there are still not enough temporary storage sites amid local opposition, as some have feared that the waste could be left there permanently.

A government panel working on compensation payment guidelines, meanwhile, decided Thursday that Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, should pay an additional 7 million yen each to people who have their homes in the difficult-to-return zone.

The lump-sum payment is intended to compensate for the emotional distress of not being able to return to their homes and region over a long period of time.

December 26, 2013(Mainichi Japan)