Only 20% of planned waste site secured

 

Six years after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the government has secured only 20 percent of the site planned for intermediate facilities to store contaminated waste, such as soil.

The environment ministry plans to build the facilities at a 16-square-kilometer site surrounding the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Futaba and Okuma towns.

The site will store radioactive waste produced from the cleanup of nuclear contamination in Fukushima for about 30 years.

The facilities started going up in November of last year. The ministry says it plans to start their operation in the autumn of this year.

But as of the end of February, it has secured 3.36 square kilometers, or 21 percent, of the needed land.

Six years on, decontamination-related waste is still kept at about 1,100 temporary storage sites. Also individuals are keeping some waste in about 146,000 gardens and other sites.

Environmental experts urge the ministry to accelerate land negotiations to improve the situation.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20170309_02/

March 10, 2017 Posted by dunrenard | Fukushima 2017 | Contaminated Waste, Fukushima, Intermediate Storage Facilities Site | Leave a comment