Toward the environmental restoration of disaster areas: Research on the recovery of environments contaminated with radioactive substances

National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) researchers from various disciplines have worked together since immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) to conduct a wide range of research in support of disaster areas.

These initiatives have led to the launch of a new “environmental emergency” research field aimed at disaster area environmental recovery based on knowledge and experience in environmental research that NIES has built up over many years.

Five and a half years have passed since the GEJE struck on March 11, 2011. Steady progress is being made on environmental recovery and reconstruction in Fukushima Prefecture and other affected areas, but major problems and challenges remain as a result of damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami as well as contamination of the environment with radioactive substances.

Leveraging its rich experience in environmental research from immediately after the GEJE, NIES has conducted research on the treatment and disposal of debris and other disaster waste, including waste contaminated with radioactive substances, the environmental dynamics of radioactive substances and their impact on organisms and ecosystems, environmental changes and impacts caused by earthquakes and tsunamis, disaster area reconstruction and community development, local area environmental creation and other aspects of environmental emergency research. In fiscal 2016, NIES will set up a branch within the Environmental Creation Center to be established in the town of Miharu in Fukushima Prefecture in order to better conduct sustained investigation and research rooted in the disaster area. NIES will also conduct research on environmental creation to prepare for future disasters based on the experience and lessons of the GEJE.

Since the GEJE, NIES has focused in particular on researching the recovery of environments contaminated with radioactive substances, and this issue introduces these efforts and plans for further research in this area.