Not much progress has been made in transporting debris in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures created by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami to other prefectures for disposal because local governments and residents outside the disaster-hit areas fear the debris could be contaminated with radioactive substances from the fiasco at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The debris amounts to 11 times and 19 times the normal annual amount in Iwate Prefecture and in Miyagi Prefecture, respectively. Although the central government has a plan to dispose of such debris within three years, it will be difficult to achieve this goal if the current situation continues.

The Environment Ministry says that the concentration of radioactive substances in ash from the incinerated debris from Iwate and Miyagi prefectures will very likely be much lower than the government-set level of 8,000 becquerels per kg. Waste at or below this level can be buried in ordinary landfill sites.

But the burden has been placed on local governments that agree to receive debris from disaster-hit areas to determine if it is contaminated with radioactive substances. If the contamination level is high, they then must decide whether it would endanger public safety. Getting consent from local residents to bury contaminated waste would also be difficult.