Japan to burn drums of unprocessed radioactive waste from nuclear accident

Nuclear fuel processing firm JCO Co. plans to build an incinerator for disposing of low-level radioactive waste stored at its plant in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, where a fatal criticality accident occurred in 1999, company officials said Tuesday.

JCO will submit necessary documents to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry with the aim of completing the facility by next March, the officials said.

Of the unprocessed waste equivalent to approximately 8,900 200-liter drum cans stored at the plant, the company plans to incinerate the content of about 200, including documents and work clothes used at the uranium-processing plant where the accident occurred, they said.

kyodonews.jp