Environmental Remediation Activities in Japan Following the Fukushima Dai-ichi Reactor Incident - 12603
- AMEC Environment and Infrastructure (United States)
- Obayashi Corporation (Japan)
In March 2011, the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactor power plant was crippled by the Great Pacific earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Much of the focus in the news was on the reactor site itself as the utility company (TEPCO), the Japanese government, and experts from around the world worked to bring the damaged plants into a safe shutdown condition and stem the release of radioactivity to the environment. Most of the radioactivity released was carried out to sea with the prevailing winds. Still, as weather patterns changed and winds shifted, a significant plume of radioactive materials released from the plant deposited in the environment surrounding the plant, contaminating large land areas of the Fukushima Prefecture. The magnitude of the radiological impact to the surrounding environmental is so large that the Japanese government has had to reevaluate the meaning of 'acceptably clean'. In many respects, 'acceptably clean' cannot be a one-size-fits-all standard. The economics costs of such an approach would make impossible what is already an enormous and costly environmental response and remediation task. Thus, the Japanese government has embarked upon an approach that is both situation-specific and reasonably achievable. For example, the determination of acceptably clean for a nursery school or kindergarten play yard may be different from that for a parking lot. The acceptably clean level of residual radioactivity in the surface soil of a rice paddy is different from that in a forested area. The recognized exposure situation (scenario) thus plays a large role in the decision process. While sometimes complicated to grasp or implement, such an approach does prioritize national resources to address environment remediation based upon immediate and significant risks. In addition, the Japanese government is testing means and methods, including advanced or promising technologies, that could be proven to be effective in reducing the amount of radioactivity in the environment beyond a fixed, concentration based limit. Essentially, the definition of acceptably clean includes the concept of reasonably achievable, given the available technology, means and methods, and the cost to implement such. The Japanese government recently issued three technology demonstration contracts expressly designed to test and evaluate the available technologies, means, and methods, which, if implemented, might produce the greatest risk reduction from environmental contamination for the best value. One of the Japanese contract holders, Obayashi JV, has teamed with AMEC to demonstrate the applicability and capabilities of the Orion ScanPlot{sup SM} and ScanSort{sup SM} technologies in radiologically impacted towns both inside and immediately outside the 20 km restricted zone. This presentation provides some unique images and informative insight into the environmental radioactive impacts in and around the exclusion zone. It will provide a look at one element of the Japanese government?s efforts to achieve the greatest risk reduction that is reasonably achievable. The Orion ScanPlot{sup SM} and ScanSort{sup SM} are being used with success on the Japan Town Demonstration Project to assess pre-remedial action contamination levels, document the post-remedial action contamination levels and to precisely measure and segregate excavated soils based on their radioactive content and the prescribed segregation limits (DCS). Initial results suggest that these technologies could provide capabilities to the remedial action efforts that would result in considerable improvements in field data certainty and compliance with remedial objectives while reducing overall costs. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, 1628 E. Southern Avenue, Suite 9-332, Tempe, AZ 85282 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22293761
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-14-WM-12603; TRN: US14V1417115285
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2012: Waste Management 2012 conference on improving the future in waste management, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 1 Mar 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France; 1 ref.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Radiological Surveys of 1600 km of In-Use Roads in Ichinoseki City, Japan Following the Fukushima Dai-ichi Reactor Accident - 17467
Low-Altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as a Tool for the Remediation of Radiologically Contaminated Environments - 16257