Nuclear reactors – It took 8 years since the Fukushima disaster to lose memory of the consequences of the triple nuclear explosion.

What is going on within the Japanese government regarding the country’s energy policy?

After the earthquake which occurred on March 11, 2011 in the area of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which blocked the operation of three reactors and the subsequent Tsunami which put the cooling system dedicated to controlling the temperatures of the plants out of use, a triple uncontrolled atomic explosion occurred.

We all know the consequences and above all know 150,000 citizens who lived around the plant who had to leave their land contaminated by radiation.

The immediate decision of the Tokyo government was to stop all 54 nuclear reactors present on Japanese territory and start a rethinking of national energy policy.

During these 8 years the government, in the area affected by the explosion, has started projects for the creation of 11 wind farms, for a total expenditure of 2.75 billion dollars, which would produce about 600 MW, against a production of about 4700 MW from the plant’s reactors.

There are also plans to build new biomass, solar and geothermal power plants that can reduce dependence on nuclear and coal.

These projects are part of the government’s goal of bringing the percentage of energy produced from renewable sources from 17.4% to around 22-24% by 2030, but at the same time, leveraging the fact that Japan is the third the world’s largest importer of coal, the re-ignition of nuclear reactors , according to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, would enforce the country’s CO2 emissions targets.

The environment minister, Shinjiro Koizumi , does not agree with Abe at all and claims that the Fukushima plant still has an infinite number of problems to solve in order to allow people to return to neighboring villages. So, according to Koizumi, it would be unlikely to impose on the country the decision to reignite the old nuclear reactors.

But what problems still exist in Fukushima?

First of all, about 1 million tons of radiation- contaminated water is still stored, used in the shutdown operations of damaged reactors. Although the waters have been treated, to remove most of the radionuclides, today there is no technology that can remove tritium from the water.

According to the technicians, the only way to solve the problem would be to dilute it and then pour it back into the ocean. This, however, beyond the obvious environmental and social implications, would require, according to the head of the committee that studies the dismantling of Fukushima, Hiroshi Miyano, not less than 17 years.

Obviously fishermen and neighboring countries in Japan are on a war footing because they fear fish contamination and further economic disaster for the sector.

Then there are the problems of contamination of groundwater lapping the buildings of the nuclear power plant damaged by the explosions, on which the government intervened with the construction of a frozen containment wall, costing 260 million dollars which has mitigated the phenomenon but not it blocked.

Finally, there is a serious problem for contaminated soil which, for years, has been removed with the aim of reducing the value of radiation in evacuated areas, but which has created an accumulation of millions of tons of material that nobody wants.

It is estimated that around 14 million tons of contaminated soil will have to be removed by 2021 and, according to the agreements that the local prefecture has made with the government, this mountain of material will have to be moved away from the disaster-affected area, but nobody knows where take it.

In the meantime, the works are going on with about 1600 truck trips per day, having already transported about 2.3 million tons, which corresponds to about 15% of the total material to be removed and stored at the temporary site.

The government would like to convey a safety image to the population, having already indicated some decontaminated areas as safe, but, according to Greenpeace, these areas would have too high a radiation value that would not allow a safe return of people.

In light of this situation it is truly surprising how Prime Minister Abe can think of reigniting nuclear reactors in a country, between the earthquake-prone earthquake and the Tsunami.