ID :
203884
Sat, 08/27/2011 - 18:09
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/203884
The shortlink copeid
Gov't eyes revival law, nuclear waste facility for Fukushima
FUKUSHIMA, Aug. 27 Kyodo -
The government plans to establish a special law to help revive Fukushima Prefecture, while seeking to build a temporary storage facility there for radioactive waste, following the country's worst nuclear accident, officials said Saturday.
While the idea of special legislation, based on a local proposal, gave hope to Gov. Yuhei Sato, the idea for a storage facility displeased him after outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan unveiled it during their talks in Fukushima City.
''It's an abrupt proposal. We are very much baffled,'' Sato said.
Without specifying an envisaged location or time frame, Kan was quoted as telling Sato, ''The central government has no choice but to ask that an interim storage facility that will properly manage and keep contaminated materials arising in Fukushima be built within the prefecture.''
But he added, ''We have no intention of making it a final disposal site.''
Kan, who met Sato after the first meeting between the national and Fukushima prefectural governments on the prefecture's revival from the nuclear crisis, also promised that the central government will continue to do all it can to deal with the crisis even after his Cabinet resigns, expected next week.
Kan also explained the possibility that some of the areas with high radiation levels within the no-go zone around the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will be unavailable for residents to return and live for a long period.
It could take more than 20 years before evacuees can return home to areas where radiation exposure is estimated at 200 millisieverts per annum if no decontamination efforts are made and radioactivity is left to reduce by natural factors, according to a government estimate reported at the meeting.
At the meeting, which some local participants said was rather late five and a half months after the crisis began in March, Tatsuo Hirano, minister in charge of reconstruction, said the government plans to lead efforts to rebuild the prefecture under a special law to be established by next year.
The government will consider the legislation's substance based on a draft law proposed by the prefectural government as ''the starting block,'' Hirano said. Gov. Sato later told reporters that the plan is ''a step forward.''
The draft features state responsibility to repair damage and promote the development of the whole of Fukushima, including the coverage of all costs.
The government plans to establish a special law to help revive Fukushima Prefecture, while seeking to build a temporary storage facility there for radioactive waste, following the country's worst nuclear accident, officials said Saturday.
While the idea of special legislation, based on a local proposal, gave hope to Gov. Yuhei Sato, the idea for a storage facility displeased him after outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan unveiled it during their talks in Fukushima City.
''It's an abrupt proposal. We are very much baffled,'' Sato said.
Without specifying an envisaged location or time frame, Kan was quoted as telling Sato, ''The central government has no choice but to ask that an interim storage facility that will properly manage and keep contaminated materials arising in Fukushima be built within the prefecture.''
But he added, ''We have no intention of making it a final disposal site.''
Kan, who met Sato after the first meeting between the national and Fukushima prefectural governments on the prefecture's revival from the nuclear crisis, also promised that the central government will continue to do all it can to deal with the crisis even after his Cabinet resigns, expected next week.
Kan also explained the possibility that some of the areas with high radiation levels within the no-go zone around the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will be unavailable for residents to return and live for a long period.
It could take more than 20 years before evacuees can return home to areas where radiation exposure is estimated at 200 millisieverts per annum if no decontamination efforts are made and radioactivity is left to reduce by natural factors, according to a government estimate reported at the meeting.
At the meeting, which some local participants said was rather late five and a half months after the crisis began in March, Tatsuo Hirano, minister in charge of reconstruction, said the government plans to lead efforts to rebuild the prefecture under a special law to be established by next year.
The government will consider the legislation's substance based on a draft law proposed by the prefectural government as ''the starting block,'' Hirano said. Gov. Sato later told reporters that the plan is ''a step forward.''
The draft features state responsibility to repair damage and promote the development of the whole of Fukushima, including the coverage of all costs.
