Fukushima storage plan

February 12, 2014

Fukushima asks govt. to review debris storage plan

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20140213_01.html

The governor of Fukushima prefecture has asked the central government to consider scaling down planned temporary storage facilities for radioactive debris. He wants to reduce the affects on local towns near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant that are hoping to rebuild their communities.

Governor Yuhei Sato met Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara and Reconstruction Minister Takumi Nemoto in Tokyo on Wednesday.

The government is planning to store radioactive debris and soil from decontamination work in 3 towns close to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. They are the towns of Futaba, Okuma and Naraha.

The governor stressed that the scale of the storage sites should be as small as possible.

He raised a recent agreement between the prefecture and the 3 towns.

It proposes reducing the number of host municipalities to two by excluding the town of Naraha from the plan.

Naraha logs lower radiation levels compared to the other two towns, and more evacuees are hoping to return to their homes as soon as possible.

He suggested building only a limited facility in Naraha that would solidify ash from the incinerated debris from the 2011 disaster. The radiation levels of the debris treated there would be lower.

The governor also asked the government to swiftly draw up measures that would allow the owners of the land where the facilities will be constructed to rebuild their lives, as well as their neighbors.

He also requested development measures be drawn up for host communities.

Ishihara said he will fully consider the request from the prefecture and the towns, although reviewing the plan will be difficult.