Radioactive waste to stay in Fukushima?

March 10, 2012

Gov't to build interim storage facilities for radiation-tainted waste

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120310p2g00m0dm015000c.html

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The government will ask local municipalities to host interim storage facilities for radiation-contaminated soil and other waste at several locations in Fukushima Prefecture near the crisis-hit nuclear power plant, reconstruction minister Tatsuo Hirano said Friday.

The government is expected to make the request at a meeting to be held in Koriyama, Fukushima, on Saturday with the eight towns and villages comprising the prefecture's Futaba district as well as the prefectural government.

In December's meeting with the local leaders, Environment Minister Goshi Hosono formally asked that an interim storage facility be built somewhere in the district where Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant is located.

Hirano, minister in charge of reconstruction from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, told a press conference that Hosono will ask the local governments at Saturday's meeting to host several facilities in the area.

Hirano also said the government plans to give a briefing at Saturday's meeting on its survey of the conditions of local infrastructure such as roads, water supply and sewerage since the disaster and how to conduct radiation monitoring in the area.