Abstract
The March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan triggered one of the largest environmental pollution disasters of all time. Despite the need to decontaminate the affected areas, local residents are reluctant to accept any decontaminated soil and waste in their own living environment, a situation that is delaying decontamination work. With the disaster as a case study, this chapter investigates the role of public involvement and decision-making in disaster response, based on international experience with cleaning up radioactive contamination of the environment.
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Notes
- 1.
The definition of “decontamination” used here follows that of IAEA’s Safety Glossary 2007 Edition: “the complete or partial removal of contamination by a deliberate physical, chemical or biological process.” In practice, at these sites in Japan, this often means physically relocating the toxic material to storage in another location (IAEA 2007).
- 2.
E.g., Asahi Shimbun, article issued March 4, 2014.
- 3.
“Living environment” is a term used in Japanese legislation to indicate the ambient environment where people live, and is interpreted from the perspective of the affected person.
- 4.
The Japanese government’s policy on decontamination of forests so far has been to decontaminate only the forests in proximity of houses.
- 5.
As of November 2016, 96 municipalities are designated as Intensive Contamination Survey Area. 93 had developed decontamination work plans. Dedontamination work is near the completion stage. In Special Decontamination Areas, decontamination work has completed in seven municipalities. The work is still on-going in remaining four municipalities as of September 2016. For the most recent development on environmentl remediation, please check: http://josen.env.go.jp/en/.
- 6.
Committee 4 of the ICRP is in charge of application of the commission’s recommendations and plays a role as a major ICRP contact point with other organizations (2009).
- 7.
Jacques Lochard, “Rehabilitation of Living Conditions After a Nuclear Accident: Lessons From Chernobyl,” presentation to the Japanese Cabinet Office, Oct. 28, 2011, and personal communication with the author (2011).
- 8.
Yasuo Onishi, “Environmental Remediation Examples and Remediation Strategic Planning,” Presentation at the International Symposium on Decontamination—Toward the Recovery of the Environment—Oct. 16, 2011, and personal communication with the author (2011).
- 9.
Presentation by Kyo Kageura, private meeting between Goshi Hosono (Environment Minister) and experts on Health Communication with Nuclear Disaster Victims, August 2011.
References
Asahi Shimbun. “THREE YEARS AFTER: Frustration remains high over Fukushima cleanup, but radiation fears easing”. Retrieved April 2, 2014, from http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201403040053.
Harashina, S. (2011). Environment impact assessment—From response to strategy, Iwanami Shinsho (in Japanese).
IAEA. 2007. IAEA’s Safety Glossary 2007 Edition. Retrieved April 3, 2014, from http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1290_web.pdf.
IAEA. 2011. Final report of the international mission on remediation of large contaminated areas off-site the Fukushima Daiichi NPP, International Atomic Energy Agency website. Retrieved June 5, 2013, from http://reliefweb.int/report/japan/final-report-international-mission-remediation-large-contaminated-areas-site-fukushima.
ICRP. (2009). Application of the commission’s recommendations to the protection of people living in long-term contaminated areas after a nuclear accident or a radiation emergency: International commission on radiological protection publication 111. Annals of the ICRP, 39(3).
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Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES). (2013). “FAIRDO 2013, Challenges of decontamination, community regeneration and livelihood rehabilitation, FAIRDO Experts, 2nd discussion paper,” http://pub.iges.or.jp/modules/envirolib/upload/4718/attach/web_FAIRDO_2nd_Discussion_Paper_E_130906.pdf.
Lochard, J. (2011). “Rehabilitation of living conditions after a nuclear accident: Lessons from chernobyl,” presentation to the Japanese Cabinet Office. Retrieved June 5, 2013, from http://www.cas.go.jp/jp/genpatsujiko/info/twg/dai5/siryou2.pdf.
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Onishi, Y. (2011). Environmental remediation examples and remediation strategic planning. Paper Presented at the International symposium on decontamination—Toward the recovery of the environment, October. 16, 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2013, from http://www.jaea.go.jp/fukushima/pdf/decon_j_05.pdf.
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Nameki, M. (2017). Disaster Response and Public Consultation in Cleaning Up Radioactive Contamination of the Environment. In: Yan, W., Galloway, W. (eds) Rethinking Resilience, Adaptation and Transformation in a Time of Change. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50171-0_19
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