Japan: Scientists Call for Dumping Radioactive Soil Into Sea

December 5th, 2011

Via: Asahi:

Scientists have proposed dumping soil contaminated by radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster into the deep sea, an idea certain to meet opposition both at home and abroad.

A group led by Isao Tanihata, a professor at Osaka University’s Research Center for Nuclear Physics, and Kozi Nakai, a former professor at the Tokyo University of Science, said the best way to get rid of the radioactive soil is to place it in noncorrosive, pressure-tight vessels and dumping them at least 2,000 meters deep near Japan.

“The sea, away from all residents, would pose no problem,” Tanihata told about 30 researchers at a study meeting at Osaka University on Dec. 3.

The participants, including nuclear physicists and researchers at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, did not object to the proposal from a scientific point of view.

But former education minister Akito Arima, who was also present, said, “The sea is common property of all humankind, and the key is whether fishermen and the general public will support the proposal.”

Tanihata and Nakai, who have been involved in compiling the science ministry’s soil contamination map, drafted the proposal as the government faces difficulties finding a final disposal site for soil contaminated with radioactive materials from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

The group plans to submit a formal proposal to the government.

But it will be difficult to realize the project partly because dumping contaminated soil into the sea could constitute a violation of the London Convention, designed to prevent marine pollution.

Research Credit: Douglas

2 Responses to “Japan: Scientists Call for Dumping Radioactive Soil Into Sea”

  1. erth2karin says:

    Maybe all those Japanese monster movies weren’t reactions to Hiroshima & Nagasaki after all, but actually prophecies.
    Self-fulfilling prophecies are the most entertaining kind. o_0

  2. tochigi says:

    the criminal nucleocracy knows no bounds

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