(Japanese) Municipalities increasingly unwilling to accept quake debris

[kristopher]

Learning to live in a toxic environment...

Municipalities increasingly unwilling to accept quake debris


Debris from Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, is being loaded into a container to be sent to Tokyo. (Mainichi)

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The number of municipalities that have accepted or are considering whether to accept debris from areas ravaged in the March 11 disaster stands at 54, although 572 expressed willingness to do so in April, the Environment Ministry said Wednesday.

The debris to be disposed of is from Iwate and Miyagi prefectures, with Fukushima Prefecture excluded, but the growing reluctance among the municipalities apparently reflects their concerns that the debris may contain radioactive materials from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

"Even if all of the municipalities that are now considering accepting debris do accept it, it would not lead to the disposal of all the debris that the devastated areas want to get rid of," a ministry official said.

The ministry said it will distribute documents to municipalities across the nation assuring that the debris from Iwate and Miyagi prefectures is safe as part of effort to urge them to accept the rubble...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111103p2g00m0dm016000c.html

Chiba gov't: Cement company discharged water far over radiation limit into Tokyo Bay

CHIBA -- Radioactive cesium far in excess of a provisional legal limit was found in drainage water that a cement company discharged into Tokyo Bay, the Chiba Prefectural Government has announced.

According to the prefectural government, water that Ichihara Eco Cement discharged into the bay contained 1,054 to 1,103 becquerels of cesium per kilogram of the water, 14 to 15 times the provisional upper limit that the central government has set.

...As to why it continued to discharge the water into the bay even after finding high radiation levels, an Ichihara Eco Cement official said, "We could not judge whether to stop because there are no clear legal standards, and we could not refuse incinerated ash coming from local bodies because it had nowhere else to go. We will follow instructions from the authorities and do our best to respond to the situation."

...Ichihara Eco Cement accepts more than 30,000 tons of refuse incineration ash generated in Chiba Prefecture a year and processes it into cement. With operations offline for the foreseeable future, it is feared that the incident could adversely affect local bodies' garbage incineration work.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111103p2a00m0na009000c.html

[RC]

1. Sure, like the shear volume has nothing to do with reluctance to keep excepting more and more and ..

[kristopher]

2. The problem is volume of unknown radioactive debris.

As with so many other problems related to the earthquake and tsunami, the multiple meltdown of three nuclear reactors and the accompanying massive release of radioactive fallout has made disposing of the debris much, much more difficult to deal with.

[RC]

3. Everything is a nail for your only tool - the hammer.

Your single minded paranoia blinds you.

[kristopher]

4. It was explicitly stated in the article.