Legal and Risk Perspective for the Final Disposal of Decontaminated Soil Outside of Fukushima Prefecture

Abstract

The 13 million square meters of removed soil generated after the accident of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is being delivered to interim storage facilities. While progress is being made in reducing the volume and recycling the removed soil, the final disposal of the soil has only been decided to be outside of Fukushima Prefecture by 2045, and no consensus building process or final disposal site location has been decided. In this paper, the issues for the final disposal of removed soil outside of Fukushima Prefecture are re-examined from a legal perspective and from a risk study perspective.