TEPCO's Subsidiary Selected to Burn Disaster Debris from Iwate on Tokyo Bay

I forgot to write about it in the English blog, but the readers of my Japanese blog knew. Now everyone will know that the contractor who will burn the burnable part of the disaster (radioactive) debris from Miyako City in Iwate Prefecture is a subsidiary of TEPCO, called "Tokyo Rinkai (Waterfront) Recycle Power Company" located on the very landfill on Tokyo Bay that the radioactive debris and ashes will be buried.

Here's the brief background:

The Tokyo Metropolitan government signed an agreement with Iwate Prefecture on September 30 to accept disaster debris from Iwate Prefecture, starting with that of Miyako City, without much consultation at all with the Metropolitan Assembly or the residents of Tokyo. Then, it did the public solicitation to line up the waste disposal companies who would take the debris, smash them into small pieces and bring them to the landfill in Tokyo Bay. One of the stipulations (link is in Japanese, PDF) by the Tokyo government was that the applicants must select a contractor who could burn the burnable part of the disaster debris with the daily capacity of 100 tonnes and above.

Well, my quick search on the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Environment showed that there was only ONE company that could burn 100 tonnes of debris or more per day, and that was TEPCO's subsidiary, Tokyo Rinkai Recycle Power Company.

Sure enough, on October 19, the Tokyo Metropolitan government announced the 4 companies it selected to handle the disaster radioactive debris from Iwate, and these 4 companies all selected the TEPCO subsidiary to handle the burnable portion of the debris. Of course they did because that was the only choice.

From the October 19 announcement:

先行事業分から発生する可燃性廃棄物の焼却施設は、募集要領に示された要件を満たした焼却施設を選定することになっています。今回は、すべての処分業者が東京臨海リサイクルパワー株式会社（江東区青海三丁目地先）を選定しました。

As to the facility to burn the burnable debris from this pilot project, the companies are required to select a facility which satisfies the condition specified in the application form. All the companies have selected Tokyo Rinkai Recycle Power Company (Aomi, Koto-ku).

That stipulation was probably put in just to make sure the TEPCO subsidiary would have a cut in the juicy job.

The company is a joint venture of 5 large corporations:

• TEPCO

• TEPCO Environmental Engineering

• Shimizu Corporation (one of the biggest general construction companies in Japan)

• Ebara Environmental Plant Co. (subsidiary of Ebara Corp., major manufacturer of pumps, compressors, wind and water turbines)

• ORIX Eco Services Corp. (subsidiary of ORIX, the largest leasing company in Japan)

It receives subsidies from the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and sells electricity generated from the waste processing to TEPCO. Now it will make profit burning radioactive debris for the recovery of Iwate Prefecture.

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