Date: 10/10/2011
by: Catherine Kobayashi and Keiko Kitagawa
Part 1: Decontamination plan compiled http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/10_24.html
The Japanese Environment Ministry has come up with a revised plan to clear away radioactive substances from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
It announced details on Monday at a meeting of a panel of experts.
Ministry officials say decontamination will be carried out in areas where radiation levels are higher than 1 millisievert per year.
The ministry revised an earlier plan to only decontaminate places with more than 5 millisieverts per year. Municipalities in Fukushima Prefecture that have areas with less than 5 millisieverts argued they should be included in the cleanup.
The government will be responsible for the decontamination of no-entry zones and government-designated evacuation zones. Local governments will clean up the rest of the affected areas.
Areas with radiation levels higher than 20 millisieverts per year will be reduced stage by stage as soon as possible.
In areas with less than 20 millisieverts per year, radiation levels recorded at the end of August will be cut up to 60 per cent in the next 2 years.
Environment Ministry officials say the government will help prefectures that have a massive amount of radioactive waste.
The ministry's decontamination plan will be further discussed within the government before being adopted by the Cabinet as the basic national plan.
Monday, October 10, 2011 22:04 +0900 (JST)
Part 2: IAEA team continues observing decontamination http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/10_26.html
Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency have observed the Japanese government's experimental decontamination of a farm in Iitate Village. The land is in Fukushima Prefecture, inside the government-designated evacuation zone.
The 12 experts on the IAEA team arrived in Fukushima on Sunday to give advice about effective methods to clear away radioactive substances.
They visited a rice paddy on Monday where the experimental decontamination is being carried out.
Government officials explained radiation levels were reduced by 75 percent per kilogram of soil after workers removed 4 centimeters of top soil. They also said the dose of radiation in unpolished rice was about 0.1 percent of that of soil.
IAEA experts say these radiation levels are low and pose no problem.
They also inspected a site that uses 400 degree Celsius heat to process plants containing radioactive substances.
Government officials said they contained radioactive cesium within the plants when they converted them into charcoal. They said this method could help reduce the weight of plants.
An IAEA member said it would be necessary to work out a plan to effectively burn massive amounts of plants.
The IAEA experts are meeting Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato on Tuesday, their last day in the prefecture.
Monday, October 10, 2011 22:18 +0900 (JST)
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