Fukushima evacuees unhappy about storage plans

May 31, 2014

Fukushima people criticize waste facilities plan

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140531_16.html 

Evacuees from 2 Fukushima towns have sharply responded to a government plan to build intermediate storage facilities for radioactive soil and waste in their hometown.

The government held a meeting to give a briefing on the plan to evacuees from Futaba and Okuma. Those towns host the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

About 400 people attended the meeting held on Saturday in Iwaki City, 40 kilometers south of the plant.

Environment ministry officials explained their plan to acquire 16 square-kilometer plots of land in the 2 cities to build facilities to store contaminated soil and debris.

They said they will calculate the compensation for the land based on prices not largely less than those before the nuclear crisis.

The officials also said the government will legislate that the intermediate storage facilities will end their roles within 30 years from the launch and the nuclear waste will be buried outside Fukushima Prefecture.

The plan is to address residents' concerns that the facilities could stay there eternally.

Some residents said they are against the proposal as the storage facilities would harm the towns' image and make it difficult for residents to restart farming there.

Others said no other prefectures will accept a final storage site for Fukushima's nuclear waste, even if the government had such a plan.

The government hopes to bring in contaminated soil and debris from January of next year. Officials will hold related meetings inside and outside Fukushima through the middle of June.

May 31, 2014 - Updated 03:53 UTC