The IAEA and Japan’s Ministry of the Environment (MOE) held the fourth expert meeting, from 6 to 10 November 2017, on remediation efforts in off-site areas affected by the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. A summary report of the fourth meeting is available here.
During the meetings in Tokyo and Fukushima, the MOE reported to the IAEA team progress in transportation of the soil bags from the temporary storage sites to the interim storage facility (ISF) and the establishment of the national framework to allow for return of the evacuees to the areas where returning is difficult. This comes after the completion of the decontamination activities in the Special Decontamination Area, one of the milestones specified in the remediation plans. The IAEA team also made several suggestions to address some remaining challenges. One of them is to move forward the concept of soil recycling or reuse and secure the full operation of the ISF.
The fourth expert meeting focused on five topics: updates and future plans for the environmental remediation activities; lessons learned from environmental remediation activities; involvement of local stakeholders in the decision making process and communication of environmental remediation activities to the international community; follow-up of the recommendation proposed by the IAEA team at the third expert meeting; and the possibility of preparing a consolidated meeting summary report on the results and achievements of the four expert meetings. The IAEA team also carried out site visits to Fukushima for discussions with the mayors of Date city and Minamisoma city and to review the activities on soil recycling in Minamisoma city.
