Russian experts ready to share radioactive waste disposal technologies with Japan
VLADIVOSTOK. April 26 (Interfax) - Scientists from the Russian Far East have suggested to Japan possible solutions to the problem with the disposal of liquid radioactive waste, which is being accumulated at the Fukushima nuclear power plant as a result of the cooling of the reactors and spent fuel rods with sea water.
A group of scientists from the Far Eastern Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences have returned to Vladivostok from Japan, where they studied the possible implications of the Fukushima-1 disaster and shared experienced with their Japanese colleagues on the liquidation of the consequences of the tragedy.
"Experts on liquid radioactive waste disposal from the U.S. are now working in Japan and experts from France have visited [Japan]. However, none of them had experienced with neutralizing waste dissolved in sea water, which is salty," Valentin Sergiyenko, chairman of the Far Eastern Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told reporters on Tuesday.
The Japanese are now simply distilling liquid radioactive waste and compressing them into cubes, the scientist said. "Considering that they now have some 100,000 tonnes of such waste, its disposal using these technologies will take dozens of years," he said.
"These salty solutions have many different elements, of which each requires its own neutralization option. You can put piles of sorbates, but it will have to be stored somewhere. Thus, attempts to solve one problem can lead to an even more difficult problem," Sergiyenko said.
Scientists from the Far Eastern Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences have familiarized their Japanese colleagues with the Russian patented technologies for working with radioactive elements in sea water. The development of the technology began in 1994 and it was launched in 1996 (the enterprise DalRAO was created on its basis).
"We are now expecting a decision from Japan," Sergiyenko said. He did not specify when the Far Eastern Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences expects to get a response from Japan.