A year after the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan continues to struggle with an estimated four million tons of radioactive debris, which resulted from last year’s earthquake and tsunami and was subsequently contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Over 90% of that debris is still waiting to be disposed of, because many cities and towns refuse to accept it out of fear of spreading contamination. Last week, protestors in Kita Kyushu City blocked trucks carrying debris from Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures for over eight hours. Before the nuclear crisis, the government-imposed limit of radioactive cesium in debris destined to be buried in landfills was 100 Bq/kg. Post-Fukushima, that limit has been raised to 80 times the original limit, or 8,000 Bq/kg.
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