nuclear-news

Japan’s radioactive cleanup, a mammoth and uncertain task that will take decades

The waste would remain in the longer-term storage for 30 years, until half the radioactive cesium breaks down. Then it would still have to be treated and compacted   using technology that hasn’t been fully developed yet   before being buried deep underground in enclosed
containers. ….

Japan cleans up radiation zone, unsure of success, The News, March 06, 2012   FUKUSHIMA, Japan: Workers in rubber boots chip at the frozen ground, scraping until they’ve removed the top 2 inches (5 centimeters) of radioactive soil from the yard of a single home. Total amount of waste gathered: roughly 60 tons.

One down, tens of thousands to go. And since wind and rain spread
radiation easily, even this yard may need to be dug up again. The work
is part of a monumental task: a costly and uncertain effort by Japan
to try to make radiation-contaminated communities inhabitable again.
Some contractors are experimenting with chemicals; others stick with
shovels and high-pressure water. One government expert says it’s
mostly trial and error.

The radiation leak has slowed considerably at the Fukushima Dai-ichi
nuclear plant, nearly one year after the March 11 earthquake and
tsunami sent three of its reactors into meltdown. Work continues
toward a permanent shutdown, but the Japanese government declared the
plant stable in December, setting the stage for the next phase:
decontaminating the area so that at least some of the 100,000
evacuated residents can return.

Experts leading the government-funded project cannot guarantee
success. They say there’s no prior model for what they’re trying to
do. Even if they succeed, they’re creating another problem they don’t
yet know how to solve: where to dump all the radioactive soil and
debris they haul away.

The government has budgeted $14 billion (1.15 trillion yen) through
March 2014 for the cleanup, which could take decades. …..
Experts say it may be possible to clean up less-contaminated areas,
but nothing is promising in the most contaminated places, where any
improvement is quickly wiped out by radiation falling from trees,
mountains and other untreated areas.

Most of the cleaning is taking place in less contaminated areas, but
the government also launched pilot projects in 12 districts around the
plant, most of them highly contaminated, in December. Major
construction companies and others won government contracts to
experiment with various methods to remove and compact the overwhelming
volume of waste. Those found effective will be chosen for further
cleanup starting in April. ….
The Environment Ministry expects the cleanup to generate at least 100
million cubic meters (130 million cubic yards) of soil, enough to fill
80 domed baseball stadiums.

For now the waste is being bagged and buried in lined pits. Officials
hope to build safer storage facilities somewhere inside the
20-kilometer (12-mile) zone within three years. The government
launched the cleanup without definitive plans for the storage
facilities; it plans to start discussing their location with local
leaders later this month.

The waste would remain in the longer-term storage for 30 years, until
half the radioactive cesium breaks down. Then it would still have to
be treated and compacted ó using technology that hasn’t been fully
developed yet ó before being buried deep underground in enclosed
containers. ….
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-1-96289-Japan-cleans-up-radiation-zone-unsure-of-success

March 6, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, Reference, wastes