Environmental geotechnics and education initiatives for recovery from the Fukushima i Nuclear Power Plant accident

Japan was severely impacted by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku earthquake, and radiation from the subsequent accident at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima continues to pose problems for the region. This paper describes efforts that are underway to remediate the area based on civil engineering and environmental geotechnic principles. Specifically, this paper describes recommendations from a special task force that was organized by the Japanese Geotechnical Society (JGS) in response to the accident. The task force has identified several areas where new environmental geotechnic technologies are needed and has put forth ideas for educational initiatives that will be necessary to train future engineers to work on the project. Research efforts on behalf of the authors and collaborators to develop new radiation shielding geo-materials are also presented. Preliminary data show that heavy bentonite based bentonite based slurry has exceptional shielding properties, and this geo-material may be useful for radiation shielding near and inside of the nuclear reactors. Lastly, some ideas regarding the design of intermediary repositories for contaminated soil are presented. Such repositories will be used to store contaminated soil for a period of 30 years.