IITATE, Fukushima Prefecture--Government researchers on Oct. 26 tested an experimental technique to decontaminate farmland soil by roasting it at 800 degrees at a waste incineration plant near the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
IITATE, Fukushima Prefecture--Government researchers on Oct. 26 tested an experimental technique to decontaminate farmland soil by roasting it at 800 degrees at a waste incineration plant near the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Officials working for the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization heated 10 kilograms of soil contaminated with 3,580 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram using an electric heater for 10 hours at the Iitate Clear Center, filtering the fumes through cloth and glass fiber filters used at nuclear plants.
Cesium evaporates at about 640 degrees, so the theory is that the technique could remove radioactive contamination caused by the accident at the Fukushima plant. It is the first time the technique has been tried out in Japan.
"Soil would no longer have to be treated as waste if its cesium content could be brought down to a fraction of what it was," said Minoru Okoshi, a senior principal engineer at the JAEA. "We hope to investigate if it could be reused as farmland soil."