Ten years to the day after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, experts say the cleanup of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactors will take another 30 years.
The owner of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), predicts that decades of work to remove nuclear fuel, remove about 900 tons of molten fuel residues, contaminated cooling water and dismantle the four reactors will cost the government $ 76 billion or even more. according to Science Magazine.
“We are still very close to the starting line” to clean up after the crashes and explosions caused by the natural disasters, Fukushima province governor Masuk Uchibori told reporters at a news conference in February.
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Details about what happens inside the reactors are largely unknown because it is still too dangerous for humans to enter and robots can only give a partial picture of the molten fuel.
By 2022, workers will have to test a mechanical arm that will charge fuel debris to the bottom of the unit 2 reactor.
In addition, 1.24 million tonnes of polluted water circulating through the reactors – some of which leaked into the ocean early in the crisis – will also be difficult to handle, and treatment can only remove certain radioactive elements, including tritium, which forms a health risk.
This file on January 25, 2019 shows water tanks containing contaminated water treated at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
While the government is not yet sure what to do with the treated water, TEPCO reports that by the summer of next year it will no longer have room for the water.
It took $ 2.2 billion and a decade to build the four units damaged in the crash. The government has spent $ 295 billion on restoring the region.
During a socially distant commemoration in Tokyo on Thursday, Emperor Naruhito and his wife took a moment of silence to honor those killed at 2.46pm GMT – the exact moment when the earthquake in Tohoku took place a decade ago. .
“It is unbearable when I think of the feelings of everyone who has lost their loved ones and friends,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told participants.
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The magnitude 9 earthquake and the massive 40-foot tsunami that caused the triple reactor to collapse at the plant forced more than 160,000 residents to flee their homes.
More than 18,426 were killed, including the 2,527 whose remains were not found, according to the National Police Agency.
Although none of the deaths were directly related to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the damage was estimated to release 538.1 petabecquerels from radioactivity into the atmosphere.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga speaks at a news conference at the Prime Minister’s office in Tokyo on Thursday, January 7, 2021. (Kiyoshi Ota / Pool Photo via AP)
It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, and more than 14 million tonnes of radioactive waste have since been moved from the site to temporary storage facilities using plastic bags.
To date, 42,565 people – including 35,725 from Fukushima – have been displaced in northeastern Japan.
After the pollution, health issues and lifestyle diseases worsened after the accident, including cancer and diabetes, and elderly people died due to a decrease in care and deterioration of their physical condition, according to Dr. Masaharu Tsubokura.
TEPCO says the tsunami could not be foreseen and in 2019, three former drivers were found not guilty after being accused of failing to take precautions that could have prevented the collapse at the plant.
Since then, about a third of the 54 nuclear reactors in Japan have been shut down permanently, and according to Scientific American, only nine are back in operation.
They report that the accident also had global implications, which led to other countries – such as Germany – phasing out nuclear power.
In the US, which leads global nuclear energy production, no nuclear reactors have been shut down and no additional regulatory measures have been taken to combat natural disasters.
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That said, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that nuclear power used to generate electricity in the U.S. could drop by 8% over the next 29 years. This prediction comes even as government officials worldwide claim that maintaining nuclear power is necessary to meet climate goals and the US government continues to invest in nuclear power.
Japan is renewing its debate on the role of nuclear power because it aims to achieve net carbon neutrality.
On Thursday, a group of protesters held an anti-nuclear rally in front of TEPCO headquarters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.