Radioactive sludge waits for disposal

Nearly 88,000 tons of sewage sludge and incineration ash contaminated with radioactive substances from last year's nuclear plant accident has still not been removed to a permanent disposal site.

The radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster polluted soil and water in regions around the facility.

The government is obliged to find disposal sites for the sludge and ash with cesium levels of more than 8,000 becquerels per kilogram in each prefecture.

Such waste totaled 87,800 tons in 11 prefectures as of November 2nd, far exceeding the government's initial estimate of 50,000 tons.
Fukushima Prefecture has the most at nearly 70,000 tons, which is about 80 percent of the total.

Shizuoka and Yamagata prefectures were recently added to the list of sites that require clean-up, with about 11 tons of waste in total. The 2 prefectures are relatively far from Fukushima.
[link to www3.nhk.or.jp]
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