Soil Contaminated in Fukushima Nuclear Accident Set to be Disposed of, But Some Local Residents Have Doubts

By Tomoko Kito and Rio Sugihara / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

20:00 JST, August 27, 2025

The government’s five-year road map approved Tuesday for dealing with soil contaminated in the 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has raised concerns among locals over whether this timeline would be sufficient to meet the March 2045 deadline for the soil’s final disposal outside of Fukushima Prefecture.

The government approved the collection of measures to be taken in the next five years toward the final disposal, outlining plans to begin selecting candidate disposal sites around 2030 and aiming to finalize the selection by 2035.

Following the March 2011 nuclear accident, decontamination work was carried out to scrape off topsoil contaminated with radioactive substances in the prefecture. The scraped soil has been temporarily stored since 2015 in an area spanning the two prefectural towns of Okuma and Futaba near the nuclear power plant. Currently, about 14 million cubic meters of such soil is being stored.

Much of the land where the soil is currently stored was farmland or residential areas where people lived before the accident. The communities concerned made a painful decision to accept the soil on condition that it ultimately be disposed of outside the prefecture.

In an effort to reduce the volume of soil to be disposed of as much as possible, the government aims not to dispose of but to reuse soil that has low levels of radiation — below 8,000 becquerels per kilogram — in public works projects nationwide. Such less contaminated soil accounts for three-quarters of the total stored volume. The remaining soil, whose radiation level exceeds 8,000 becquerels, will be transported outside the prefecture for final disposal.

The road map specified that nine locations on the grounds of central government offices in the Kasumigaseki area of Tokyo have been selected to receive 80 cubic meters of the less contaminated soil in September or later. Such soil will also be promoted for use at both public and private entities nationwide, including local branch offices.

Meanwhile, the road map states that the government will begin selecting and investigating candidate sites for final disposal site around 2030. It says the Environment Ministry will form an expert panel in autumn to discuss such matters.

Feasibility in doubt

Complex feelings are intertwined locally. Fukushima Gov. Masao Uchibori evaluated the road map as “a certain step forward” in a statement issued Tuesday but also said, “The situation leaves me unable to feel any real prospect of feasibility,” noting that specific procedures such as how the government would acquire land for the final disposal are still unclear.

Asked why it would take five years to start selecting the final disposal site, an Environment Ministry official said, “Many items remain to be considered, such as disposal technology and dialogue with society.”

Impact on residents’ return

Local communities fear the matter will affect the area’s future recovery efforts. The current population of Okuma is 1,052, and Futaba’s is just 192. These figures are less than 10% of their pre-disaster levels.

Futaba Mayor Shiro Izawa expressed concern that the lack of a clear outlook for final disposal destinations could dampen residents’ desire to return.

A 78-year-old woman, who provided her land in Futaba for part of the current storage site said: “I hope my children and grandchildren can live in their home here, but I fear this place might end up being the final disposal site.”

Okuma Mayor Jun Yoshida said, “We don’t have much time left.”

“We strongly urge the central government to advance discussions further and proceed with the project more concretely and with a sense of urgency,” he said.