（社説）中間貯蔵施設 「福島の問題」にするな

September 02, 2014
EDITORIAL: Storing radioactive debris should not be regarded as Fukushima’s problem
（社説）中間貯蔵施設　「福島の問題」にするな

Fukushima Prefecture and two towns, Okuma and Futaba, have accepted the central government’s plan to construct an intermediate storage facility for radioactive soil and other polluted material generated by the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
　福島第一原発の事故で出た福島県内の汚染土などを保管する国の中間貯蔵施設の受け入れを同県と大熊、双葉の２町が決めた。

The central government will soon start negotiations with landowners in the two towns, which jointly host the crippled nuclear plant, to buy the necessary land for the facility.
政府は今後、用地取得に向け、地権者との交渉に入る。

Temporary storage sites for radioactive debris in the prefecture will soon be filled to the brim. This is causing delays in decontamination work.
　福島県内では汚染土などの仮置き場が満杯に近づき、除染作業の遅れにもつながっている。

An intermediate storage facility is vital infrastructure for cleaning up the mess left by the nuclear disaster.
中間貯蔵施設は、事故の後始末に不可欠なインフラだ。

Concerns have arisen that efforts to rebuild the shattered livelihoods and communities in Fukushima could be seriously hampered if no community would accept the facility.
どこかが受け入れないと、福島の生活再建や復興にも響く恐れがあった。

We welcome the decision by the three local governments as a first step toward building the facility.
施設建設に向けて動き出したことをまず、評価したい。

The process leading to this point, however, raises concerns about the future.
　しかし、これまでの経過を振り返ると、今後に向けて危惧も抱く。

The way the whole burden has been imposed on specific local communities makes us wonder if the implications of cleanup work and of continuing nuclear power generation can be shared by the entire nation.
負担を特定地域にまかせきって事故処理、さらには原発を持つことの意味を国民全体で共有できるだろうか、と。

Three years have passed since the central government called for the acceptance of the storage facility. In the end, the government offered more than 300 billion yen (about $2.9 billion) of grants to help local residents rebuild their lives and support the prefecture’s reconstruction efforts.
　政府の最初の受け入れ要請から３年。政府は最終的に、住民の生活再建や県の復興対策に３千億円超の交付金を提示した。

The prices at which the government buys land to build the facility will be based on current market prices, apart from compensation from Tokyo Electric Power Co, the nuclear plant’s operator. The prefectural government will subsidize the differences between the purchase prices and the pre-accident prices.
用地の買い取り価格も東京電力の賠償とは切り離して市場価格をもとに算定し、事故前との差額は県が相応分を支援する。

Given the heavy burden of hosting the storage facility, generous financial support to the landowners and the local governments is inevitable.
　受け入れを求める以上、地権者や自治体に手厚く補償するのは当然だ。

But money divides people.
しかし、お金は人を分断する。

When a certain area receives money in exchange for accepting a burden, people outside the area tend to pay little attention to the burden, saying, “They got the money.”
「お金をもらっているのだから」と多くが特定地域の負担に目を向けない。

Compensation for damage caused by the Fukushima disaster has created rifts based on complicated emotions between disaster-affected areas and other areas, between the evacuation zones and the rest of Fukushima Prefecture, and even between residents of the same communities because of differences in the amounts of money they have received.
被災地と被災地以外、福島県内の避難地区とそれ以外、さらには同じ町内でも金額の多寡で人々の間に複雑な感情をもたらした。

Such rifts emerged both when the nuclear power plant was built and after the accident when TEPCO decided on compensation to victims.
原発をつくるときも、事故後、東京電力の賠償金をめぐっても、繰り返されたことだ。

Money is not a silver bullet to solve these kinds of problems.
お金は万能の問題解決策ではない。

In addition, half a year after it asked for the acceptance of the storage facility, the government started negotiations focused on the two towns.
　さらに政府は要請から半年後には事実上、２町に的を絞って交渉を進めた。

Most parts of the two towns have high levels of radiation, making it effectively impossible for their residents to return home in the foreseeable future.
２町は線量が高く帰還困難区域が大半を占める。

Storing radioactive debris in areas with high radiation levels may be reasonable from the viewpoint of preventing the spread of polluted material. Even so, the government’s approach may have narrowed the scope of the problem to talks with specific areas.
汚染物を広げない意味で、線量が高いところで保管することに合理性があったとしても、問題を特定地域との交渉ごとに封じ込めることにならなかったか。

Essentially, the potential risks inherent in nuclear power generation and the burdens of dealing with its legacies are issues that should be considered by the whole nation.
　本来、原発の潜在的なリスクや後始末に伴う負担は国民全体が考えるべき問題だ。

During meetings to explain the intermediate storage facility to local residents, some participants expressed their wishes to see it located in Tokyo. Others argued that the burden should be shared with areas that consume electricity generated by nuclear power.
中間貯蔵施設を巡る住民説明会で「できれば東京に持っていってもらいたい」「電力消費地とで分かち合うべきだ」との声があがった。

These comments are natural responses to the proposal if the decision is based on the principle that the burden should be shared fairly by the beneficiaries.
負担を受益と見合う公平なものにしようと考えれば、当然の発言である。

We will face the same problem when we try to determine who should shoulder the burden from the disposal of aged nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuel.
　今後私たちは、老朽化した原発や使用済み核燃料の後始末でも、誰が負担を引き受けるのか、今回と同じ問題に向き合わざるをえない。

It is crucial to seek a solution that won’t divide the people.
　分断を伴う解決ではない、別の道筋を模索すること。

Even if the proposed intermediate storage facility is built, many other challenges must be tackled.
中間貯蔵施設ができたとしても、挑戦すべき課題は残っている。

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 2