Progress to Date

Decontamination Process

In response to the accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the Government of Japan passed the "Act on Special Measures Concerning the Handling of Radioactive Pollution" in August 2011, establishing a roadmap for effectively addressing and implementing the radiation decontamination process. 

Under the act, the contaminated areas are separated into two categories.  The first is the "Special Decontamination Area", which overlaps with Evacuation Order Area, where decontamination is implemented directly by the national government.  The second is the "Intensive Contamination Survey Area" which is overseen mainly by local municipalities and encompasses all other areas.  As of March 25, 2013, 101 municipalities in 8 prefectures are covered by this Act.

The Basic Principles under the Act place priority on areas where decontamination is required from the viewpoint of human health, specifically public facilities, commercial facilities, residences, farmlands, roads, forests (those areas within 20m from the living environment), etc. Among these, the living environment for children is given the highest priority.

Contaminated soil and waste are to be gathered and placed into Interim Storage Facilities (ISF), until being transferred to a final disposal site outside Fukushima. The national government aims to have ISFs operational within approximately three years (by the beginning of 2015).

The national government is providing strong financial support to the decontamination efforts, allocating JPY 609 billion in the 2013 fiscal budget.  The total budget for decontamination, including the cost for handling removed soil and waste as well as managing contaminated off-site materials amounted to JPY 900 billion as of November 2012.

For the most recent information on decontamination, please visit here.

Interim Storage Facility (ISF) Design:

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