MOSCOW, Sept 11 — Japan's plan to recycle and dispose of radioactive soil from the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant (NPP) complies with safety standards, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said, reported Sputnik.
"Japan's approach for recycling and disposing of soil and radioactive waste from decontamination activities after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident as currently planned is consistent with IAEA Safety Standards.
"The findings, presented by the IAEA to Japan’s Minister of the Environment Shintaro Ito, today, were the result of a sixteen-month safety review," it said in a statement yesterday.
About 13 million cubic metres of soil and about 300,000 cubic metres of ash from the burning of organic materials were removed as part of the decontamination work in Fukushima Prefecture, and the final disposal of the remaining soil is to be completed outside Fukushima Prefecture by 2045.
"Japan plans to recycle roughly 75 per cent of the removed soil — the soil which has low levels of radioactivity — by using it, if demonstrated safe, for civil engineering structures," IAEA said.
The remaining soil that cannot be recycled will be permanently disposed of, with Japan aiming to confirm the selection of the site in 2025.
In March 2011, the Fukushima NPP had three of its reactors meltdown after the nation was shaken by a magnitude-9 earthquake followed by a massive tsunami. Fukushima is considered the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union).
— Bernama
