Japanese Environment Ministry inaugurated on October 28 part of the interim storage facility in Okuma-machi in Fukushima Prefecture to hold radioactive soil that were generated from decontamination works followed by the disaster at Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. The opening is considered the first step to remove 1,100 provisional storage sites which hinder progress of restoration of the disaster hit area.

The reception and classification facilities with capacity of 140 ton per hour and 50,000 m3 soil storage fields were constructed by a group of contractors led by Shimizu. As construction of the facility in neighboring Futaba-cho is underway, the interim storage facilities will total 1,600 ha when completed. The ministry plans to store up to 22 million m3 contaminated soil at the facilities for as long as 30 years. (2017/10/31)