Abstract
Composting processes capable of reducing the amount of grass silage contaminated by radioactive cesium were examined to decrease the workload for temporary storage or the advanced treatment for contaminated silage. In the case of composting with vacuum-type aeration, the temperature and pH in the early stage of composting were low. However, these increased gradually by the middle stage so that water was added to the contaminated silage to prevent it from being excessively dried. 53-69% of organic matter was decomposed during composting and 17MJ/kgDM of higher heating value (5.5-11MJ/kgDM of estimated lower heating value) was found in the composts. Radioactive cesium concentrations of the exhaust gases from composting and of the surrounding atmosphere were lower than the detection limit.
