Japan to start reusing soil from Fukushima despite public concerns over radioactivity

Japan will reuse millions of cubic metres of soil contaminated with radiation from Fukushima after winning safety approvals from the UN’s nuclear watchdog, officials said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency carried out a 16-month safety review and submitted its final report to Japan’s environment minister Shintaro Ito on Tuesday, green lighting the government’s plans to reuse soil and debris collected from the site of three nuclear reactors, out of the total six at the nuclear power plant.

The earth in northeast Japan around the nuclear facility was contaminated with radiation after a 9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami damaged the three reactors in March 2011.

Now 13 years later, the IAEA has concluded that the recycling and final disposal of the soil were “consistent with the IAEA safety standards”, a clearance welcomed by the Fumio Kishida administration.

Mr Ito termed IAEA’s findings “encouraging” as he received the IAEA’s final expert report.

“The government will continue its efforts, fully considering the report’s findings, to promote more effective management, recycling and final disposal of the removed soil in the future,” he said, according to Kyodo news.

Japanese authorities have stored around 14 million cubic metres of radioactive soil and other waste generated from decontamination activities inside an interim facility. However, the soil and debris from the site which has been recorded to have higher radiation levels will not be recycled and is expected to be disposed of by Japan outside of the northeastern prefecture by March 2045.

The UN nuclear watchdog studied and examined the existing interim storage site for the waste and recycling techniques in Fukushima prefecture.

The 2011 accident spewed radiation into the air, which eventually contaminated the soil. Part of that tainted soil is stored at an interim site more than four times as big as New York’s Central Park.

But the law requires the soil stored at the interim site, located next to the tsunami-wrecked plant, to be moved out of Fukushima within 30 years from when it began operating in 2015.

Japanese environmental groups have cautioned against reusing the soil contaminated with radiation and the current administration allegedly taking advantage of the reduced global attention on the gradual discharge of Fukushima plant’s water into the Pacific.

“We are extremely concerned. The IAEA has consistently stated in the past that radioactive waste should be stored centrally and we have supported that position,” said Hajime Matsukubo, the secretary general of the Nuclear Information Centre (CNIC) led by Tokyo-based citizens. “But now they are going against their own recommendations,” he said, reported the South China Morning Post.

“My fear is that once they relax this rule, they can then go on and ease all sorts of other rules,” he said.