Municipalities in the greater Tokyo metropolitan region are struggling to find locations to store soil contaminated with high levels of radiation from the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Municipalities in the greater Tokyo metropolitan region are struggling to find locations to store soil contaminated with high levels of radiation from the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
A major problem is that many of the municipalities are heavily populated residential areas lacking space to bury or store the contaminated soil.
Residents of the Nedo district of Kashiwa in Chiba Prefecture are especially concerned about the contaminated soil found in their neighborhood.
About 150 residents attended a meeting that was held on Feb. 5 to explain what the city planned to do.
"If we allow the soil to be stored here, there will be others who ask that their soil be moved here as well,” one resident said. “I absolutely do not want you to bring soil from other areas here."
In autumn last year, a city-owned vacant lot in the Nedo district was found to have radioactive cesium at levels of about 450,000 becquerels per kilogram of soil.
Environment Ministry officials believe cesium emitted from the Fukushima nuclear plant became concentrated after falling with the rain in the area. Cesium on the grounds of a company located upstream from the ditch where the soil was found measured about 650,000 becquerels.
The Kashiwa city government closed off traffic along the road near the site of the contamination and repeatedly asked the central government to provide a temporary site to store the soil.
However, central government officials did not budge from their position that the soil should be stored within Kashiwa.
The city finally decided to store 0.8 cubic meter of soil from the vacant lot in a concrete container to be placed at the site. The container measures about 1 meter square, but the contaminated soil has radiation levels about 56 times the central government standard of 8,000 becquerels for permissible burial.
The lot is about a 10-minute walk from Kita-Kashiwa Station on the JR Joban Line and is surrounded by large condominium buildings.
One man who attended the Feb. 5 meeting said, "I felt from the very beginning that we would not be able to depend on the central government, but it turned out just as I expected."
The special measures law for processing radiation contamination that went into effect in January states that the central government must process all waste containing radioactive materials in excess of 8,000 becquerels. However, the Environment Ministry has defined waste in a limited manner to cover only ash from sewage processing facilities.
Ministry officials insist that the processing of contaminated soil, regardless of the radiation level, was the responsibility of municipalities.
However, Kashiwa city government officials are insisting that the central government should handle soil with radiation levels exceeding 8,000 becquerels.
Because the owner of the land where the contaminated soil was found must temporarily store the soil, the soil with cesium of about 650,000 becquerels has been stored on the company’s premises.
Six cities in Chiba Prefecture that are placing priority on decontaminating soil at facilities used by children, such as schools and day-care centers, will have to find places to store the accumulated soil.
As of December, decontamination work had been carried out at 67 percent of 435 facilities.
In the case of Abiko, 762 cubic meters of soil was gathered from 45 facilities, with the total approaching 1,000 cubic meters if soil from parks and roads is included.
Some municipalities are choosing to temporarily bury the contaminated soil.
For example, in Kamagaya, holes are being dug on school grounds to bury 1 to 3 cubic meters of contaminated soil. According to city officials, operators of private kindergartens are storing the soil on their own properties.
Teruo Kawada, 36, who heads a group of volunteers in Kashiwa who are decontaminating soil, said, "Because we cannot afford to wait for a resolution, we have to respond by burying the soil even though there are concerns about its effectiveness."
In neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture, municipalities have also implemented measures to alleviate concerns among residents.
Last December, Moriya city officials began renting out radiation meters to residents. Of the 935 households that have measured radiation until now, about 80 percent have removed surface soil and are storing it in bags distributed by the city or covering the soil with plastic sheets.
Toride city officials have also distributed bags to citizens to store contaminated soil. A total of 669 cubic meters of soil removed from four parks in the city from last December have been buried in one part of those parks.
Schools in Tokyo have also begun decontamination work, but some in central Tokyo have no place to store the soil.
According to the Chuo Ward board of education, two elementary schools in the Nihonbashi area are storing soil removed from under gutters and around plants in warehouses.
At Ginza Junior High School, the soil is being kept on the roof because there is little room on school grounds that can be dug up.