– This Is How “Decontamination” Is Done, and To Be Done in Fukushima (EX-SKF, Oct. 18, 2011):
As Prime Minister Noda looked on, workers contracted by Fukushima City “decontaminated” a relatively new-looking residence in Onami District in Fukushima City on October 18. It is to be served as “model decontamination” for the rest of the district, as well as for the city.
It amounts to nothing more than power washing to “move” radioactive materials from one place to another.
Onami District of Fukushima City, along with another district (Watari District), has high air radiation and soil contamination. In the “model decontamination” work done by the city in August, the radiation hardly went down, while in several locations it went up. Quite a “model decontamination”. It is probably a model distribution of government money among well-connected contractors.
This is a footage of the TBS news:
– Decon Bubble in Fukushima: Contractors Charging US$13,000 Per House (EX-SKF, Oct. 18, 2011):
Yet another fine example of how a government is so good at misallocating the resource. By pledging to pour hundreds of billions of yen (probably in trillions) into “decontaminating” Fukushima, the Japanese government has already spawned a brand-new industry of residential decontamination. Who are the industry participants? Cleaners, painters, just about anyone who has a high-pressure washer.
Some are apparently charging 1 million yen (US$13,000) to hose down your house. As you can see in the video in the previous post, their idea of “decontamination” looks little more than year-end cleanup. Power washing seems to somehow turn cleanup into “decontamination”.
From Yomiuri Shinbun (10/19/2011):
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As decontamination work gets underway in Fukushima Prefecture to remove radioactive materials from the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, so do troubles with the decontamination contractors. Some are asking 1 million yen [US$13,000] to decontaminate a house.
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Disputes over the cost may increase in the future, and there are some who point out that there should be a guideline specifying what constitutes the standard decontamination work and the cost associated with it.
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Regarding decontamination, some municipalities like Fukushima City have the city-wide decontamination plan and focus on particular areas to decontaminate. On the other hand, there are cases where the residents hire contractors for decontamination on their own. There are also active sales promotion by the contractors.
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Disputes mostly rise from the latter cases. The Fukushima prefectural department in charge of decontamination has received a complaint from a resident who was presented with a bill for 1 million yen by the contractor who did the decontamination work for his residence. The department says it has received similar complaints.
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Fukushima City has received inquiries from the residents about the cost of decontamination. One resident who hired the contractor to decontaminate for 200,000 yen [US$2,600] asked the city whether or not this cost would be paid by either the national government or TEPCO.
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There were no contractors specialized in decontaminating residences, until now. Many cleaning companies and painters are entering the field. One building management company in Minami Soma City says, “If we calculate the same way as the cleaning of a personal residence, 200,000 to 300,000 yen per residence would be appropriate.”
Hmmm. Decontamination is not the same as cleaning, really. But from what I’ve heard directly from people who have witnessed the so-called “decontamination” in Fukushima and what I’ve seen on video, they are one and the same.
Blasting the roof and wall with power washer after more than 7 months may not even be enough to dislodge radioactive cesium, as Professor Yamauchi has analyzed. Even if it does, it simply moves cesium to somewhere else, like the neighbor’s yard or onto the public road. Then, particularly in the case of Fukushima, the contaminated mountains and forests surrounding the cities and towns will supply radioactive cesium and other nuclides over time with rain and wind.
But no matter. Money is there to be made, as near-endless supply of money flowing from the national government to “decontaminate” Fukushima and make people stay.
If blasting with power washer does decontaminate, I am pretty sure Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians have done that long time ago.
Prime Minister Noda, whom you can see in the video in the previous post, won the leadership election thanks to his oratorical skills and NHK misreporting on the votes available for Banri Kaieda, looks absolutely clueless. Just as his predecessor, the whole thing looks way over his head.