Fukushima prefectural authorities have asked the Environment Ministry to reduce from three to two the number of sites it plans for the temporary storage of radioactive debris generated by the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant disaster.
Fukushima prefectural authorities have asked the Environment Ministry to reduce from three to two the number of sites it plans for the temporary storage of radioactive debris generated by the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant disaster.
Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato on Feb. 12 submitted a request to Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara and Takumi Nemoto, the minister in charge of post-quake reconstruction, asking them not to build a storage facility in the town of Naraha so that its residents can return home earlier.
Based on the request, Ishihara said the Environment Ministry will review the initial plan to erect facilities in Naraha, as well as the towns of Okuma and Futaba.
“It will be hard work to go over the plan, but we will consider the proposal promptly and offer an explanation,” said Ishihara.
The central government intended to construct intermediate storage facilities in the three towns, all in Fukushima Prefecture, that are capable of storing 13.1 million, 12.4 million and 2.5 million cubic meters of debris, respectively. The smallest of the sites was to be built in Naraha.
However, Sato argued in his request that if collected debris were burned to reduce its volume, the two larger sites could accommodate all the waste.
The governor also proposed that the ministry build a plant to process the ash from debris with radioactive values at 100,000 becquerels per kilogram or lower in Naraha instead.
Elsewhere though, many other municipalities in the prefecture have urged the prefectural government to quickly facilitate the building of those facilities because radioactive soil and other associated waste generated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster are filling up temporary storage sites throughout the prefecture.
The Environment Ministry estimates that 1.6 million cubic meters of debris was stored across Fukushima Prefecture as of the end of last October.
Starting in mid-December, the prefectural government began discussing Naraha’s request with the local authorities in Okuma and Futaba.
On Jan. 22, the day Fukushima Governor Sato declared the prefectural government would play a leading role in deciding how to implement the central government’s plan, Masao Uchibori, a vice governor of Fukushima Prefecture, informally met with mayors of Okuma and Futaba to finalize the contents of the request that would be submitted to the environment minister.
The Environment Ministry has vowed to remain flexible when handling requests from local governments. Until Sato submitted his plea neither the prefectural government nor the municipalities had responded to the ministry’s request.
“A path to dialogue has finally opened,” said a senior ministry official.
Another senior official said the latest request from the prefectural government will create a need for the ministry to redesign the planned facilities and revise routes to transport radioactive soil.
“We will be able to show a revised plan to local governments in early March at the earliest,” the official said.