D1. "X-Park" Nuclear Waste Final Disposal Site
Target to regenerate
Value criteria that prioritize time performance and cost performance
Reason
Time and cost performance are ultra short-term mindsets.
They contradict the long-term thinking required to solve major societal challenges.
The Transition of Japanese Values
The “family” system as an economic community prioritized family and community interests over individuals, and emphasized long-term relationship maintenance and community stability over efficiency and least-cost outcomes.
People are dependent on things that can be measured numerically, such as money, time, and likes. Time-performance/cost-performance has a significant impact on daily decision making because immediate results are easy to see and short-term satisfaction and success are easy to achieve.
There is a movement away from “ownership and individualism” toward “sharing, a sense of community, and sustainable connections. These signs can be seen as an attempt to explore new forms of human relationships and the nature of society.
In a world where a gift economy with resonance and appreciation coexists with capitalism, everything is smoothly connected, and people are thinking broadly and long term, not just in terms of individual time performance cost-effectiveness.
The Transition of Japanese Values - Our relationship with energy
Until the Edo period, wood was the main energy resource. With a sense of reverence and gratitude to nature, they carefully preserved a sustainable, recycling-based energy system from a long-term perspective.
From modern times to the present, economic efficiency has been prioritized and reliance on cheap fossil fuels and nuclear power has taken a backseat to environmental considerations and final disposal issues.
Distributed energy is still in the diffusion stage, but a mechanism for sharing energy in the community is being envisioned, and new social connections will begin to emerge through cooperation.
Everyday life is balanced by an energy mix of distributed energy and nuclear power as a regulator of that mix. Those who choose to coexist with nuclear power have a new value system that accepts both “benefit enjoyment” and “waste management” with a sense of awe and gratitude.
Caption-1 Coexistence with nuclear waste
Nuclear power generation, which began commercial use in Japan in 1966, was surprisingly started without any solution to the problem of how to dispose of the nuclear waste left over after power generation. At that time, there was no way to know that nuclear waste would continue to be stored without a solution for the next 100 years.
The turning point is 2040. The dormant selfish genes of the Japanese people will begin to awaken.
Feeling a sense of crisis about the disasters that befall them, such as the intensification of natural disasters caused by global warming, extreme heat, soaring food and energy prices, and the spread of infectious diseases, Japanese people have finally begun to think of environmental issues as their own concern. They have chosen an energy mix of renewable energy and nuclear power, and have decided to coexist with nuclear waste with a long-term perspective. This is because the AI judged that the chances of human survival would be higher if we "kept it in a visible place while keeping an eye on it" than if we "buried it in an invisible place and hid it." And so, in 2066, the "X-park Nuclear Waste Disposal Site" was born as Japan's first final disposal site.
Caption-2 "X-park" as a place to share gratitude and awe
While conventional "geological disposal" involves confining high-level radioactive waste in stable bedrock deep underground and "disposing of it in isolation from the human living environment," X-park buries it deep underground in urban areas where the energy is enjoyed, and "people continue to manage it themselves, feeling its presence on a daily basis. " Either method makes it impossible to see the waste buried deep underground, but X-park will not pretend it "never existed." By cultivating rice with groundwater pumped up from underground after geological treatment and holding events throughout the year, the park will be able to share safety assurances, gratitude for the power generation, and awe at the existence of something that is out of control, and will continue to pass it on to future generations.
Caption-3 Harvest Festival
In early October, a week's worth of rice is harvested in X-park for the residents of C-Ward. A harvest festival is held every year to celebrate the bountiful harvest. At the harvest festival, participants eat food made with newly harvested rice and rice cakes, experience the safe management of nuclear waste, and express their gratitude to each other.
A temporary tower called "YAGURA" is set up in the center of the rice paddy, and at night a fire is lit to give thanks for the autumn harvest and energy, and to pray for the continued safe management of the nuclear waste.
Caption-4 The experience of a ronin student
As the end of the year approaches, a temporary tower called "YAGURA" and a ceremony is held to geologically dispose of the approximately 40 vitrified bodies (reprocessed radioactive waste) that have been generated using the electricity they have consumed over the past year. Through this ceremony, the residents of C-ward feel close to the vitrified bodies that will be managed for tens of thousands of years to come, and seal them away with awe and gratitude. When the ceremony for sealing them away is over, the new year arrives for the residents of C-ward.