Ten years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, experts say that cleaning up the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant will take another 30 years.
The plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), predicts that decades-long work to remove nuclear fuel, about 900 tons of molten fuel waste, discard contaminated cooling water and dismantle the four reactors will cost the US government. $ 76 billion or more, according to Science magazine.
“We are still very close to the starting line” for cleanup after collapses and explosions caused by natural disasters, Fukushima prefectural governor Masao Uchibori told reporters at a news conference in February.
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Details of what is happening inside the reactors are largely unknown because it is still very dangerous for humans to enter and robots can only provide a partial view of the melted fuel.
In 2022, workers are scheduled to test a mechanical arm that will recover fuel residues at the bottom of Unit 2’s reactor.
In addition, 1.24 million tonnes of contaminated water circulating through the reactors – some of which leaked into the ocean at the start of the crisis – will also be difficult to deal with and treatment can only remove certain radioactive elements, not including tritium, which represents a health risk.
On January 25, 2019, the archive photo shows water tanks containing contaminated water that was treated at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma City, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan. (Kyodo News via AP, Archive)
Although the government is still unsure of what to do with treated water, TEPCO reports that it will run out of water for the summer of next year.
It took $ 2.2 billion and a decade to build the four units damaged in the accident. The government spent $ 295 billion on the recovery of the region.
At a socially distanced commemorative ceremony in Tokyo on Thursday, Emperor Naruhito and his wife took a moment of silence to honor the dead at 2:46 pm GMT – the exact moment when the Tohoku earthquake occurred a decade ago.
“It is unbearable when I think of the feelings of all those who have lost loved ones and friends,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told participants.
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The magnitude 9 earthquake and the huge 12-meter tsunami that triggered the collapse of the triple reactor at the plant forced more than 160,000 residents to flee their homes.
More than 18,426 were killed, including 2,527 whose remains were not found, according to the National Police Agency.
Although none of the fatalities were directly related to the radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the damage had released about 538.1 petabecados of radioactivity into the atmosphere.
Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihide Suga, speaks during a press conference at the Prime Minister’s official residence in Tokyo, Thursday, January 7, 2021. (Kiyoshi Ota / Photo of the pool via AP)
It has been the worst nuclear disaster in the world since Chernobyl and more than 14 million tons of radioactive waste have been moved from the site to temporary storage spaces using plastic garbage bags.
To date, 42,565 people – including 35,725 from Fukushima – have been displaced in northeastern Japan.
After the contamination, health problems and lifestyle illnesses after the accident became more serious, including cancer and diabetes, and the elderly died due to reduced care and deterioration of their physical condition, according to doctor Masaharu Tsubokura .
TEPCO says the tsunami could not have been predicted and in 2019 three former executives were found not guilty after being accused of not taking precautionary measures that could have prevented the plant’s collapse.
Since then, about a third of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors have been permanently shut down and only nine have returned to operation, according to Scientific American.
They report that the accident also had global implications, prompting other countries – such as Germany – to eliminate nuclear power.
In the United States, which leads the world in nuclear power production, no nuclear reactor has been shut down and no extra regulatory measures have been taken to combat natural disasters.
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That said, the United States Energy Information Administration predicts that nuclear power used to generate electricity in the United States could fall 8% in the next 29 years. That prediction comes even when government officials around the world say that maintaining nuclear power is necessary to meet climate goals and the U.S. government continues to invest in nuclear power.
Japan is renewing its debate on the role of nuclear energy, as its goal is to achieve carbon neutrality.
On Thursday, a group of protesters held an anti-nuclear demonstration in front of TEPCO’s headquarters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.