The government will expand the offloading of radioactive soil generated from the Fukushima nuclear accident cleanup to government-affiliated organizations nationwide and eventually to the private sector.

The plan was adopted at a meeting of relevant Cabinet ministers on Aug. 26.

“To promote soil reuse, it is crucial to gain broad public understanding of its necessity and safety,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at the meeting.

The reutilization is part of a road map to achieve the government’s goal of transporting the soil from decontamination work out of Fukushima Prefecture by March 2045 for final disposal. 

Currently, about 14.1 million cubic meters of soil are kept at an interim storage facility surrounding the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the towns of Okuma and Futaba. The volume is equivalent to 11 Tokyo Domes.

When establishing the facility, the government promised local communities that the soil will ultimately be disposed of outside the prefecture.

To reduce the volume of soil requiring final disposal, the government plans to redistribute soil with radioactive concentrations of 8,000 becquerels per kilogram or less to public works projects and other applications.

In July, some soil was buried in the garden of the prime minister’s office in Tokyo.

Similar reuse will begin in September at central government ministries and agencies, where the soil will be spread in flowerbeds and other areas.

Over the next five years, the government plans to expand reuse initiatives to its regional branch offices, corporations under its jurisdiction and private companies’ land development projects across the country.

The goal is to pave the way for full-scale reutilization by around 2030.

Meanwhile, in preparation for final disposal outside Fukushima Prefecture, the Environment Ministry will establish an expert panel in autumn to examine methods for managing radioactive waste at disposal sites.

According to the road map, the process of selecting and surveying potential candidate sites for final disposal will begin around 2030.

The government plans to establish specifications for the disposal facilities and select specific sites by around 2035.

Past efforts to reuse the soil have faced setbacks.

The Environment Ministry had planned pilot projects in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, and Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden in Tokyo, but the plans were abandoned in the face of opposition from local communities.

Still, a senior Environment Ministry official said public sentiment toward soil reuse shifted with the start of treated water releases into the ocean from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in August 2023.

China strongly opposed the discharge despite the International Atomic Energy Agency’s assessment that it would have a “negligible radiological impact on people and the environment.”

The backlash from Beijing had a seemingly paradoxical effect of fostering a more level-headed reaction in Japanese society, according to the official.

“The public reacted calmly to the reutilization at the prime minister’s office,” the official said. “A few years ago, it would have been a different story.”

About three-quarters of the soil in storage are considered suitable for reuse.

But the amount to be distributed to government ministries and agencies from September, combined with that already used at the prime minister’s office, totals only about 80 cubic meters.

It remains unclear how much progress can be made over the next five years in expanding the distribution nationwide, including in the private sector.

The Environment Ministry estimates the cost of establishing and maintaining the interim storage facility at 2.2 trillion yen ($15 billion).

But depending on the location of reuse projects, overall expenses could be inflated by transportation costs and other factors.

Shunji Matsuoka, a professor of environmental economics and policy studies at Waseda University, questioned the government’s policy to distribute the soil to affiliated organizations.

“The government appears to be avoiding head-on engagement with society by choosing locations unlikely to face opposition,” said Matsuoka, who studies Fukushima’s reconstruction policies. “Unless the government gains understanding of residents through dialogue, these projects will not serve as meaningful precedents and the reutilization program will not move forward.”

He said Japanese society as a whole must once again consider what solutions are scientifically and socioeconomically feasible for the reconstruction of Fukushima, including the possibility of revising the current policies on soil reuse and final disposal outside the prefecture.