After the meeting, the governor announced his decision to accept the transfer of the radioactive soil to a provisional site, part of the planned interim facility, saying that “the removed soil should be delivered to the site as soon as possible to accelerate the process of decontamination in the prefecture.”
On the next day, February 25, the governor also met with Minister Yoshio Mochizuki of the Ministry of the Environment and Minister Wataru Takeshita of the Reconstruction Agency at prefectural headquarters, conveying his decision to them.
Given that each town has its own thinking about the issue, the timing of the first delivery of waste will be coordinated with the government. Okuma Mayor Watanabe said, “It was a difficult decision to accept the transfer of waste to the site, but there is no other choice.” Both mayors indicated that they would allow the transfer.
When agreeing to the construction of the interim facility in August 2014, the prefecture noted that constructing the facility and receiving waste were “separate things.” It then presented a list of five requests to the government, including its desire for a legal commitment for the waste to be transferred from the interim facility to somewhere outside the prefecture for final disposal three decades (or less) later, as well as the allocation of subsidies and the conclusion of safety agreements with local communities.
On February 8, the environment and reconstruction ministers had told Governor Uchibori about their related activities, asking him to allow the transfer of waste posthaste.
The national government aims to start deliveries of the radioactive soil and waste to the interim storage facility before March 11, the fourth anniversary of the earthquake.
