Osaka to accept tsunami debris
TOKYO —
Osaka will accept tsunami debris from the Tohoku region, new Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Hashimoto told Environment Minister Goshi Hosono, who is also the minister in charge of the nuclear crisis, that Osaka plans to use the debris as landfill, NHK reported. He said that Osaka would take the debris on condition that the central government carry out comprehensive testing to make sure it is not radioactive.
If the plan goes ahead, Osaka will become only the second region outside the Tohoku area to accept tsunami debris. Tokyo started taking rubble from Iwate in November and from Miyagi earlier this month.
Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures have massive mountains of rubble, said to weigh more than 23 million tons. However, prefectural government officials say that all storage areas are now full and that they need to ask other prefectures to help with disposal.
But the prefectures have expressed reluctance to accept debris for incineration due to radioactive fears. Many local government officials said the central government has not done a good job of explaining the radiation problem and what levels are safe in terms that are easy to understand.
Japan Today
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-3
ssway
Why can't Fukushima accept ALL the debris? It makes no sense for it to be spread all across this small landmass. Dig very deep pits in Fukushima and bury it all there.
If a dog pooped on your carpet you would put it all into one garbage can not spread it all over the carpet.
2
Lunchbox
ssway, Why should Fukushima have to deal with all the debris from Tohoku? Maybe you are getting the Nuclear accident mixed up with the Tsunami. This is talking about Tsunami debris, not radioactive debris from the nuclear stations accidents, or topsoil from the fallout area. The dog pooping on your carpet analogy doesn't really work. It's more like a truckload of shingle being dumped on your front lawn and you have nowhere to put it, let alone the time to shovel it into buckets to move it. If your neighbours each offer to take a few wheelbarrow loads each, you might actually be able to get down to the hard job of picking all the tiny stones out of grass so you can use your lawnmower once again.
The tsunami left millions of tons of debris (concrete, steel, wood, plastic, garbage, etc) strewn across the coastline of the Tohoku area. The debris needs to be moved before any rebuilding can be done. To just dig a big hole and bury it is not practicle because of the amount. It would also be foolish because it's not just dirt. The rubble needs to be sorted, some of it is reusable and recyclable, some of it is dangerous, and some of it can be buried or used for landfill. But sorting it is a massive task that Tohoku cannot do alone, and at the moment they have much more important things to attend to. At the moment all they have managed to do is stockpile it into enormous piles, which in itself is a huge job. If cities like Osaka and Tokyo (which certainly have the money) can take some of the debris, it may be a big help to Tohoku. But as the article says, there is concern that the debris may contain radioactive materials, so decisions have to be made carefully.
0
tmarie
And let's see how the people of Osaka react to this. The people I know are not happy with it though support this clown like he's the second coming. Good old Hashimoto, not listening to the public. Get ready Osaka, there will be much more of this to follow.
**Maybe you are getting the Nuclear accident mixed up with the Tsunami. ** Perhaps you are unaware that radiation contamination is a problem not just in Fukushima.
0
buggerlugs
This makes perfect sense. The sinister reality is the government burning debris in every prefecture so that the overall cancer rates will be messed up enough that none of those poor children can claim compensation in the future. I agree they Fukushima should burn it all. Create the jobs to do it locally. Help the local economy grow. But those in power won't do this?
0
tmarie
Those in power won't listen because the public doesn't make them listen. Hashimoto should be out on his butt for this!! Instead, he's kissing political butt in Tokyo. Hope the people of Osaka wake up and see the snake he is!
And yes, Fukushima and the affected areas should be looking after this - and creating jobs while doing so!
0
CrazyJoe
So Osaka is going to dump the debris in the sea (landfill) rather than land.
0
Dennis Bauer
is it the kind that glows in the dark?
2
Lunchbox
Yeah, Maybe one day we'll discover that radioactive debris make good rocket fuel and we don't need to harness anti-matter after all. Fukushima could be the new Dubai with all its black, I mean green-gold!
tmarie, I realise that radioactive contamination is a problem not just in Fukushima, but take somewhere like Kisenuma or Ishinomaki, they have hundreds of thousands of tons of Debri that they can't do anything with. What has digging a big pit in Fukushima got to do with that? People have an automatic knee-jerk reaction when they hear tsunami debris that sometimes isn't warranted. You are right, Hashimoto is just doing this for the votes, he's just copying Ishihara's idea on this one, but for once I think the both of them are actually showing some guts by taking a step to solve one of the many problems that Tohoku faces.
buggerlegs, That is so true, someone said something like that on a current events program the other night, that they should be pouring more money into Tohoku to create jobs, and one way to do so would be to create new rubbish refuge stations there.
0
CVHuan
@CrazyJoe. That is so uncivilized for an advanced, innovative country of Japan.
0
YongYang
This IS just INSANE. Tokyo. Yokohama. Osaka. INSANE! Transport it to where it is ALREADY heavily contaminated. Store it. Bury it... DEAL with it THERE. It's just MIND BOGGLING stupid! Fax, call, e-mail your local govts if YOU are going to be affected or not.
-2
smithinjapan
" Many local government officials said the central government has not done a good job of explaining the radiation..."
And yet Osaka will accept their word that the testing is negative and the debris 'not harmful to human health'? Sounds to me like newly elected Hashimoto is just doing this to curry favour with the central government (I can see the wheels turning in his head -- next stop is Tokyo for him!) and/or get a kick back from them for the prefecture. I can't really see why some people think he'll win votes for this because I don't think many if any Osaka people would agree with storing potentially radioactive degree here, ESPECIALLY as landfill (where it could affect the surrounding land).
The whole area around the nuclear plant is uninhabitable for at least a few decads. They should build a MASSIVE structure there to house the rubble and debris, at least temporarily. That would also give some people jobs, and the government could engage with the yakuza in the usual bid-rigging. Win-win.
0
CrazyJoe
@CVHuan
That's right!
0
gyouza
It is just so odd that people don't get it - Tsunami debris is NOT a result of the events at Fukushima.
@ssway - your comments continue to be off mark. In order to dig a hole to put the debris in they will need to move earth somewhere - where do they put that (radiaoactive) earth?
It is a chance for places like Osaka that have land expansion plans to accelerate them - sounds like a win-win situation.
-1
Elbuda Mexicano
This is real nice of OSAKA! Bless your hearts down there and Ookini!
-1
bluesea67
The problem is that some organisations involved with this disaster have proven untrustworthy in the past. What's to say some of the Yaks don't make a deal up there to send some contaminated material here to Osaka. They let contaminated rice, meat and leafy vegetables leave the area already. So I hardly think a few hundred tons of contaminated rubble is going to make any moral difference. I say No way
0
Darren Brannan
There is plenty of info out there on the net suggesting that the debris arriving in Tokyo is quite contaminated. Either way these bozos kept the public out of the decision process. By the time this stuff is being dumped off Rokko island ( yes right between Osaka and Kobe) I will have exercised my citizen's rights be pulling my family out of Japan and taking them home. I certainly don't want my taxes being spent on gregarious actions by Fascimoto and his goon squad. Only a few places in Osaka want to accept the debris anyway. Takatsuki and Ibaraki and places out near Sakai.
0
crustpunker
pave the bay, nuke the whales.
Unless someone in POWER makes a direct decision NOT to accept waste (irradiated or not) then brace yerself folks cas it's coming regardless if you like it or not. Remember, the PEOPLE here have little to no say in anything and when they try to make their voices heard in protest they are steamrolled by the powers that by and ignored by the media.
Perhaps it is prudent to NOT believe the safety hype and ASSUME that you will be and have been consuming contaminated goods...
0
kurisupisu
An NGO should be in charge of the testing not the central government
0
crustpunker
also, what real guarantee do you have that contaminated material are not being sent along in the mix? There is no real way of knowing for sure what in fact is actually being shipped out. Please don't be naive in thinking that it will "only" be "uncontaminated debris. What, do you think they have two massive, clearly marked stockpiles designating which is which? absurd
0
gyouza
@Darren
Can you provide some links, honestly very interested to know more? Also, what is your degree of "quite contaminated"? There was a lot of oil spillage.
2
Hikozaemon
News flash - the quake was biggest in Miyagi and Iwate - and most of the worst affected areas were not irradiated by the nuclear accident - at least no more than Osaka was. Remember, Miyagi is as far away from Fukushima as Tokyo is.
Frankly, the prejudice on parade shown in particular by Kyushu and Kansai residents against helping in the national recovery effort is shameful - Ishihara has been right to berate them over it, and good on Hashimoto for breaking ranks to chip in and help at last.
Japan has almost zero landfill capacity left - this is not America, where you can't just drive further into the desert and dump all your garbage there. People don't seem to appreciate that none of the worst affected prefectures have the landfill or waste processing capacity to process the enormous amount of wreckage caused by these quakes. All trucks carrying such waste have been tested upon leaving and arrival for radiation levels.
It's especially disappointing to see so many foreigners on this site joining in with the discrimination against the affected prefectures opposing support for the clean up. It's a disgrace that so many prefectures have withrawn their initial support for the cleanup effort - heaven help them when they face a major quake an nobody wants to help them.
Good on Osaka and Tokyo for leading by example.
0
Ms. Alexander
We all know that GOJ hasn't been truthful about a lot of things but I'd really hate to think that they are willing to slowly kill the rest of Japan by having cities like Tokyo and Osaka take Tohoku debris. So I'm assuming that the debris are just debris and that they aren't contaminated.
For the poster who say the debris should stay, I think that is cold-hearted. In order for them to rebuild, they must get rid of the debris. While there may be debris that are contaminated, the tsunami traveled quite a distance. Not all are contaminated and any part of Japan should help in getting rid of it if it can.
-3
LH10
why don't they keep it in Fukushima? now it really is going to spread all over my Japan T.T oh well, life's harsh, shoganai
-2
valley-of-the-shadows
GOODBYE OSAKA!!!
-1
Elvensilvan
So Osaka will use some of these debris for landfill? To expand the airport, or to make the gap between the airport and Osaka proper smaller?
@ Hikozaemon: I'm not against the idea of using non-radioactive waste be used as landfill. Just that the government's radioactive treshold has been going up since the disasters, and there are just a few bits of reliable information regarding the current state of things. Even the "cold shutdown" information from the governmment has been questionable and even berated by some.
2
cactusJack
Be sure that Osaka is getting big $$$ to accept the debris. Funny how that is not mentioned.
0
Cos
Don't worry. We have already lived on contaminated for decades. Do you know it's forbidden to grow veggies in the ground in Osaka ? They fear they would be deadly poisonous. People that want to do garden have to scrap the earth and change it on all their plot.
To prevent the airport from sinking into the sea... it has to stay above sea level as long as the next generation of submarine aircrafts is not developed.
1
JapanGal
Dump it in the uninhabitable areas near the nuke disaster. Why waste energy transporting it so far and burning it?
1
Lunchbox
Cos, Never heard of that before. Interesting, would love to know more. Where'd you hear that, or even better, where can we read more about it. Would love to know more.
0
tmarie
**What has digging a big pit in Fukushima got to do with that? **
Hashimoto isn't caring about the public. He's caring about his future career - and he's def thinking of being PM. What better way to take all the stuff no one wants and use it later to get what he wants?
0
tmarie
Better yet, what does this have to do with Osaka??? Why take the risk of spreading any contamination around?
1
TinMadDog
This is about money...full stop.
Each prefecture of Tohoku has plenty of empty mountain land where the stuff could be piled up and properly disposed of over time. Its going to cost a lot to ship this stuff all over the country. Its going to cost for immediate disposal, recycling and burning. My guess is that the federal government will be chipping in funds for that, and the government of Fukushima will be able to do that for cheaper than handle its own waste.
I would much rather my tax money go to help them handle it themselves. Taking the risk of spreading radiation around the country is just not worth it for most people in this country. Its the pigs who stand to profit who are all for it.
0
cleo
Not a good idea. Leaving aside the problem of the mountain areas being mostly covered in trees and so not really 'empty', and also being ---er, mountainous, and so not easily accessible for huge trucks loaded with tons of debris...pile all the debris up on elevated land and leave it there over time, and the contamination (oil, asbestos, heaven only knows what else - radiation isn't the only problem) will get washed into the ground every time it rains, to accumulate in the water table and gradually trickle down to lower-lying urban areas. It needs to be sorted and properly disposed of as quickly as possible, both to clear the ground for rebuilding and to keep pollution to a minimum.
0
gyouza
@TinMadDog How much money is involved here, and how is the beneficiary. Do you have that info or just assuming?
Also..
So if I read you correctly, Japan's tax payers should pay for Tohoku citizens to keep (what you believe is) radiation contaminated gareki? If it was contiminated (so far not observed to be to any significant or dangerous degree) then all the people there would get sick, right? But you say that's OK, just don't make anyone else sick too? Kind of a confusing message.
0
oberst
This takes " spreading the wealth " to a whole new level . Why wastes fuel to tansport the debris allover the country ? Wouldn't it be easier to just dump them all in one location and make a GIANT mountain like pile as a sort of " monument " ? That could be a future tourist attraction or break some sort of record as the largest man made object. And we all know how the japanese loves breaking record !!
0
gyouza
@oberst
One of the biggest (double) tsunami isn't enough? You prefer to make light of it and reduce it to ridicule? That's cool - for some.
-1
warnerbro
The debris is at least as contaminated as the garbage and sludge now incinerated in Tokyo and filling its skies with vapourised caesium and who knows what else at this very moment. The material is burnt at a high temperature because that will reduce the radioactivity of the ash. The reason it does so is that more of the radioactive substances are vapourized in that case. They are thereby separated from the ash and the ash becmoes less radioactive. The incineration facilities have no way to contain radioactive vapour. Any level of contamination, even contamination lower than that in Tokyo now, will bring more radioactive substances into the skies and lands of Tokyo and Osaka than presently are there. Nobody should be in a hurry to rebuild near the coast where the debris is, because the Sanriku region has been hit with massive tsunamis three times since 1896. To the contrary of what the government and power companies would like us to believe, these are not rare disasters at all. That being the case, there is time to rebuild at a higher elevation above the coastline and still dispose of the contaminated materials in a rational way that does not further damage the health of the nation's children. To burn the debris in major cities would be lunacy.
0
warnerbro
Hikozaemon, here's word from the Japanese authorities related to the differences in contamination levels between Tokyo and Miyagi, in English thanks to Fukushima diary, but he has a link to the Japanese original.
//fukushima-diary.com/
This is how much caesium people are taking in each day in these prefectures, according to the government: 0.45 Bq/day in Tokyo 3.39 Bq/day in Fukushima 3.11 Bq/day in Miyagi Judging from these numbers, I'd say that there must be some radioactive contamination in Miyagi.
0
Rob Shibao
How about this; I think it should be easy to understand: if you take a pint of HIV tainted blood and mix it with a thousand, or what the heck, a million pints, of untainted blood, that should effectively neutralize the virus...right.
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