Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Radioactive Debris Disposal in Japan

 

One more reason nuclear makes NO SENSE: Nuclear Waste.

Ministry forced to start radioactive waste disposal site plan over Feb 26, 2013 The Asahi Shimbun http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201302260086

The central government has decided that “designated waste” containing more than 8,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram will be disposed of within Tochigi, Ibaraki, Miyagi, Chiba and Gunma prefectures.

The Environment Ministry plans to build a final disposal site in each of the prefectures.
But the plan has stalled due to vehement opposition from leaders in Yaita, Tochigi Prefecture, and Takahagi, Ibaraki Prefecture. These cities were chosen as final candidate sites last autumn....

1 comment:

  1. This article is very interesting - chock full of public relations work - "spin" if you will.

    If you casually read the article, you will come away thinking these two cities didn't get selected, but want radiation incinerators.

    However if you pay attention, you realize that the exact opposite is true. They have been selected for incinerators and they are pushing back.

    The sentence "Research and experts’ assessments were also insufficient in regards to guaranteeing the safety of disposal sites." is the most telling. It indicates to me that the local mayors seem to have invoked some sort of legal - possibly criminal - argument to stop the incinerators. Then it goes on to blame those mayors for delaying the program and the important disposal work.

    It says the administration will meet with Mayors to try to convince them - as if they don't know the facts already. Perhaps they will provide a different kind of "grease" to the situation...

    Then they say they will reconvene a panel of "experts" (what kind of experts - legal; pro-nuke; anti-nuke; famous people; experts with wads of cash in their pockets? Who is an expert at cleaning up the worst environmental disaster ever anyway?) who will reassess.

    Well if the first panel of experts did a bad job, what makes them think a second panel of experts will do a better job?

    Majia I think it would be a great class assignment for your students to analyze this one article for spin-mastering.

    James

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