No Exit for Radioactive Wastes

While Government of Japan promotes nuclear policy of resuming some nuclear power plants, the people in the area suffered from radioactive materials emitted by broken First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant are still living with great amount of contaminated soil, grass or trees. Although the government decided that those contaminated wastes should be treated by each prefecture, programs to build processing facilities are deadlocked by firm opposition by the residents. The government is facing a necessity for changing their plan.

Ministry of Environment designated radioactive waste, caused by the accident in Fukushima, with 8,000 Becquerel per kilogram or more as necessary to be under control of public sector. Concerning firm opposition from Fukushima, if those waste would be concentrated to Fukushima, the ministry decided that the disseminated waste should be processed in each prefecture.

Among five prefectures around Fukushima in need of building processing facility, Miyagi and Tochigi have been seeing strong protest of the residents. In Tochigi, although the ministry determined the place for the facility in Shioya Town, the people there organized broad movement against the plan. They pointed out fundamental contradiction of Ministry of Environment that it was building environmentally harmful facility in the place close to a water source which the ministry had formerly registered as a pure water source to be protected.

Chiba has been regarded as the place where the facility would be build first. Tokyo Electric Power Company offered an unused land in Chiba city for the facility. But, residents started protesting activities, arguing that the reason of selecting the place was unclear or liquidation caused by great earthquake would be concerned. Two thousand metric tons of radioactive waste in Chiba has still no way to go.

Now, the question is whether the decision of Ministry of Environment to process radioactive waste in each prefecture was right or wrong. The lawmakers passed a law which determined that national government would deal with radioactive waste caused by Fukushima accident. But the law did not require each prefecture to build processing facility. It was bureaucrats who made the plan to demand each prefecture to build it. There has been no viable explanation why each prefecture has to be responsible for the solution.

This is a typical example of negative aspect of top-down style bureaucracy in Japan. The key is whether bureaucrats would admit their wrong decision and change the course to plan B.