Scientists Say Clear Plan Needed for Fukushima Decontamination

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RIA Novosti, PUBLISHED 18.08.2014

The Japanese authorities need to come up with a clear decontamination plan for areas that have been affected by the Fukushima disaster so that more people can return to their homes faster, Junko Nakanishi, a leading expert on chemical risk assessment told The Japan Times.

“Somebody has to find a common ground where people can return to their homes as early as possible. We need to set a goal for radiation...But no politician, bureaucrat or expert seems to make such suggestions,” Nakanishi was quoted as saying by the paper Sunday.

The process of decontamination is a major issue for Fukushima Prefecture, because it determines if and when the prefecture’s residents will be able to return home.

According to Nakanishi, Japanese authorities have still not come up with a realistic decontamination plan. A threshold of 20 millisieverts or less per year is the key condition for lifting an evacuation order in a given area. The Japanese government has also determined a long-term decontamination goal of one millisievert per year, although no specific timeframe has been given. Nakanishi stressed that the one millisievert goal is unrealistic in heavily contaminated areas, while the 20 millisievert threshold is too high for many residents to accept.

The expert noted that a maximum annual exposure level of five millisieverts could be a more realistic target for decontaminating evacuation zones. According to Nakanishi’s calculations, a five millisievert requirement would allow about 65,000 residents to return home in one or two years and cost around ?1.8 trillion ($17.5 billion) to execute.

As of April 1, 2014, 80,000 Fukushima Prefecture residents were still displaced, according to The Japan Times. The Japanese government is responsible for decontaminating evacuation zones in 11 of the prefecture’s municipalities where radiation levels exceed 20 millisieverts per year.

Meanwhile, people who have been evacuated from radiation-affected areas may be left without homes. About 40 percent of the first batch of public housing for those displaced by the Fukushima nuclear disaster is not expected to be ready by the end of March, 2016. According to the Fukushima prefectural government, 1,600 housing units, or about 40 percent of the first 3,700 planned in the prefecture, will likely face delays of up to nine months.

Residents evacuated from the area were scheduled to move into the units by March 2016, but the prefecture has asked the central government to extend the deadline. Fukushima authorities say it is taking longer than expected to conclude deals with the landowners of the sites for large housing complexes.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced a meltdown in March 2011 after it was struck by a tsunami. The plant’s operator TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is still in the process of cleaning up and dismantling damaged reactors and the thousands of spent fuel rods that are still emitting radiation.

Topics: NPP Fukushima Daiichi

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