#Radiation in Japan: Ashes With Up To 100K Becquerels/Kg Cesium May Be Buried, If Ministry of Environment So Decides

And it is likely that it will do so.

Do not believe for a moment it is only within Fukushima Prefecture, because it isn't. Prefectures and municipalities that have found radioactive cesium in the ashes in the household garbage incinerators have already adopted the Fukushima standard as their standard, due to the lack of specific guidance from the government addressed to their specific localities.

The Ministry of the Environment has already issued a guidance to mix the potentially radioactive debris with regular industrial waste and burn, so that the resulting ashes will test lower than 8,000 becquerels/kg cesium content. Now the limit will be 100,000 becquerels/kg; coupled with the mix and match operation, probably they can bury just about anything. Maybe even those radioactive debris and waste on Fukushima I Nuke Plant.

According to the Guardian article on July 13, the workers at Fukushima I Nuke Plant are still removing 23,000 firefighter suits discarded around the reactors, packing them up, and shipping to a nuclear waste disposal facility. Why bother?

Spread radiation with impunity!

From Jiji Tsushin (7/14/2011):

10万ベクレルまで大幅引き上げ＝福島の放射性がれき埋め立て基準－環境省

Limit for burying radioactive debris from Fukushima to be raised to 100,000 Becquerels/Kg - Ministry of the Environment

　環境省は14日、福島第1原発事故で放射性物質に汚染された恐れのある福島県内のがれきの焼却灰について、一般の最終処分場での埋め立てを認める放射性セシウム濃度の基準を、現在の1キロ当たり8000ベクレル以下から10万ベクレル以下まで引き上げる検討を始めた。同省の有識者会議で、地下水への汚染防止策を施すことなどで、安全に埋め立てができる条件を整理する。

Japan's Ministry of the Environment started the discussion on July 14 to raise the limit for radioactive cesium in the ashes from debris in Fukushima that are suspected to be radioactive in the wake of the Fukushima I Nuclear Plant accident. The current safety limit is 8,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium. The Ministry is considering to raise this limit to 100,000 becquerels/kg. The Ministry will call a meeting of experts to come up with the conditions for burying the ashes safely, such as measures to prevent groundwater contamination.

　同省は先月、8000ベクレル以下なら埋め立てを認め、このレベルを超えると処分場に一時保管する方針を示した。ただ、東京都や千葉県の一般ごみから、8000ベクレルを超える焼却灰が相次ぎ見つかっていることなどから、一時保管後の処分方法の検討を急ぐことにした。

Last month, the Ministry announced its policy to allow the burying of the ashes as long as they test 8,000 becquerels/kg and lower, and to temporarily store the ashes if they exceed that level. However, with discoveries of ashes from regular household wastes that exceed 8,000 becquerels/kg in Tokyo and Chiba, the Ministry has decided to speed up on the policy on the disposal after the temporary storage.

You can be assured that these experts would never object as a group. Probably there are one or two who will raise a token concern (that's their role), but the majority will give them assurance that it will be OK, and the Ministry will quote this expert group as the reason for its decision.

I will look up information on the final waste disposal plant specs in Japan.

I can almost bet there are no rubber liners or anything to prevent any leakage of toxic substance, not to mention radioactive waste that should be going to nuclear waste disposal facilities to begin with. Why do I think that way? Because if the so-called experts are thinking about putting in measures to prevent groundwater contamination, there is none, as of now.

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