The amount of the contaminated soil that would result from decontaminating the land within Fukushima Prefecture that has been contaminated by radioactive materials by the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant’s accident can reach the approximate maximum of 100 million cubic meters, according to an estimate made by Prof. Yuuichi Moriguchi of Tokyo University (Environmental System Engineering).
The scale of it is said to be about a total remaining capacity for a general waste of all landfills in the nation combined. The assumption was made for decontaminating the areas with the radiation level of 1 microSv/hr and above in air.
1 microSv/hr and above is the standard criterion for the government’s assistance in order to replace the contaminated surface soil of school yard. Analyzing by using the data from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, etc., the areas that exceed this standard extends to about 2,000 square kilometers that includes Planned Evacuation and Buffer Zones.
However,”fresh” radiation falls down daily, by every minute, 1 billion cubic meter will be increase but will never decrease.
In a rough estimation,if it takes 40 years to settle down the situation,8 billion cubic meter amount of contaminated soil will be produced in total.