On Saturday, the Japanese Prime Minister in Tokyo delivered dozens of bags of slightly radioactive soil from the surroundings of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. This is part of a campaign to convince the public that this soil is not dangerous and is suitable for reuse. According to media coverage, it will be used in flower beds around the Government Office, AFP reported, TASR writes.
AFP said that shortly after the tsunami and accident in March 2011, the authorities scraped a layer of contaminated land from land in Fukushima to reduce the level of radiation.
The crash in Fukushima after a destructive tsunami wave caused a large number of radioactive materials. Since then, Japan has been dealing with how to load with a huge volume of soil, cut trees and other natural materials harvested during decontamination work. They are currently stored in the facility between Futaba and Ókuma, near Fukushima. The government plans to find the places for their final storage or use by 2045.
The soil can serve as a base layer
Most stored soil contain low levels of radiation that are equivalent to or lower than one normal X -ray exposure per year. This applies to people who stand directly on this land or work with it, the Ministry of the Environment said.
The Ministry added that such soil could be used as a base layer, for example, and safely covered with a sufficiently thick layer of clean soil to keep the radiation level at a negligible level.
However, the public in Japan continues to feel considerable concerns – very few people have been interested in using this contaminated soil. After the protests of citizens, the government was forced to resign from experimenting with its use in several public parks in Tokyo and its surroundings. However, he plans to use it in government buildings.
The nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiiči power plant was the most serious nuclear disaster from the accident in the Chernobyl power plant in 1986 and is one of the two, which, according to the international scale of nuclear events (INES), were classified by a degree of 7 – the highest.
It occurred on March 11, 2011 after a strong magnitude earthquake of 9.0 and a subsequent tsunami wave. The earthquake damaged the power supply to the power plant, the tsunami was then flooded with backup generators that powered the cooling systems. Reactors 1, 2 and 3 overheated, with a partial melting of fuel cells in the active zone of reactors. In reactor buildings, hydrogen explosions occurred, which damaged the structures and led to the leakage of radioactive substances. As a result of the accident and contamination, approximately 150,000 people had to leave their homes.
