Japanese Government to Municipalities Against Accepting Radioactive Waste: "Shut Up"

That, in my crude paraphrasing, is what the Japanese national government is telling those municipalities in Japan that are siding with the residents who are against receiving radioactive waste - whether it is radioactive fly ashes from incineration plants or radioactive sewage sludge - to be burned, buried, or recycle in their towns, as long as the radioactivity is 8,000 becquerels/kg and less.

Or more formally according to NHK,

the Ministry of the Environment has requested the municipalities throughout Japan not to restrict the acceptance of waste without any scientific evidence and legal basis and not to instruct the private waste processing companies not to accept the waste.

The national government has declared it is safe, and IAEA agrees with them, says NHK.

Does IAEA really say it is safe to bury 8,000 becquerels/kg radioactive cesium in a regular dump? Somehow, I have my doubts.

"Request" is a strong word, bureaucratically speaking, but short of outright order which may yet to come.

NHK News (1/21/2012):

基準以下の廃棄物 処分を要請

The national government requests the processing of radioactive waste if within the safety limit

首都圏などで出るごみの焼却灰や汚泥のうち、放射性セシウムの濃度が国が定めた基準を下回っているにもかかわらず、ほかの自治体にある施設に処分を頼んでも、断られるケースが相次いでいることを受けて、環境省は、全国の自治体に受け入れを拒否しないよう要請しました。

As municipalities continue to refuse to accept and process the ashes from garbage incineration or sewage sludge in the Tokyo metropolitan region and other locations, the Ministry of the Environment has requested the municipalities throughout Japan not to refuse.

ごみの焼却灰や汚泥については、環境省が、放射性セシウムの濃度が１キログラム当たり８０００ベクレル以下であれば、通常の埋め立て処分をしても差し支えないとする基準を示しています。ところが、首都圏や東北地方では基準値以下のものであっても処分を依頼していたほかの自治体にある施設から、周辺住民などの反対で受け入れを断られるケースが相次いでいます。

As to the garbage ashes and sewage sludge, the Ministry of the Environment has already set the standard of 8,000 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium; if the radioactivity is 8,000 becquerels/kg and less, it is OK to bury the ashes and sewage sludge in a regular landfill. However, there are many cases in which processing of ashes and sludge from the Tokyo metropolitan region and in Tohoku region has been refused by the municipalities under contract, due to the opposition from the residents in the receiving municipalities.

こうした状況を受けて、環境省は、８０００ベクレル以下の焼却灰や汚泥を埋め立てても周辺住民などの安全に問題がないことは国内の専門家だけではなく、ＩＡＥＡ＝国際原子力機関も認めているとして、科学的な根拠や法的な根拠なしにむやみに受け入れを制限したり、処分業者に対して受け入れの中止を指導したりしないよう全国の自治体に要請しました。

To remedy the situation, the Ministry of the Environment has requested the municipalities throughout Japan not to restrict the acceptance of waste without any scientific evidence and legal basis and not to instruct the private waste processing companies not to accept the waste. According to the Ministry, not only the experts in Japan but also the IAEA agree that when the ashes and sewage sludge with 8,000 becquerels/kg and less radioactive cesium are buried in a landfill, safety of the residents living near the landfill is not a problem.

環境省は「基準値以下のものであれば安全であることを理解してもらいたい。適切な処理ができるよう自治体との調整や住民への説明は今後も続けていきたい」としています。

The Ministry of the Environment says, "We want them to understand that if it is within the safety standard, it is safe. We will continue to coordinate with the municipalities and explain to the residents so that the appropriate processing [of the radioactive waste] can be done."

Next, I fully expect the Ministry of the Environment to say the same thing about disaster debris in Miyagi and Iwate, which the Tokyo government has been merrily burning in the municipal incinerators and dumping the ashes into the final processing location which is a landfill in the middle of Tokyo Bay. (Liquefaction, anyone?)

In some municipalities, landfills are located near the water sources, and the landfills have been known for leaking toxic substances into the water by faulty or broken filtering systems.

Residents of east Japan including Kanto region are against receiving it because they do not want added radioactive materials on top of what they already have. Residents of west Japan do not want it because most of west Japan has been spared of serious contamination like that of east Japan, and do not want to contaminate their soil, air and water.

More ordinary people on the net are getting more knowledgeable than the government officials and politicians. They may have no problem coming up with the scientific evidence and legal basis to refuse the radioactive waste.

By the way, the ashes from burning the regular household garbage in Iwaki City in Fukushima Prefecture has been burned in the melting furnace into slags in Saitama Prefecture, which are then turned into sands to be used in the public works in Saitama. The prefecture didn't know about it until citizens told the officials, as the prefectural government is not involved in the transaction between the private business in Saitama and a municipality in other prefecture.

An increasing number of Japanese seem, finally, to think if they allow the government to get its way, nowhere in their country can remain clean (excluding the background of course from the nuclear fallout from the atmospheric testing). They'd better hurry and educate their non-net-based friends and family members.

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