January 29, 2015

Construction of radioactive waste storage to start

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/nuclear.html

Jan. 29, 2015 - Updated 12:17 UTC+1

Japan's environment ministry plans to soon start building initial facilities for storing radioactive waste stemming from decontamination work in Fukushima Prefecture, northern Japan.

They are part of the intermediate storage complex to be built in a 16-square-kilometer area straddling the towns of Futaba and Okuma.

The government earlier planned to start moving the waste to the site by the end of this month. But it canceled the plan due to delays in purchasing land and building facilities.

The government now plans to start the transport by March 11th, the 4th anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that led to the nuclear accident in 2011.
The ministry says construction of 2 initial storage facilities, each 10,000 square kilometers, will start next Tuesday at industrial parks in the intermediate site.

The waste is to be kept there until intermediate storage facilities are completed. It remains unclear when their construction will begin, due to lack of progress in purchasing land.

Huge amounts of radioactive soil and other waste stemming from decontamination work have been kept in each municipality of the prefecture.

Municipalities are asking the government to provide a concrete schedule for transporting the waste.