Japan’s Ministry of Industry has asked a city in the west of the country to accept an initial study of a site for the final disposal of high-level radioactive waste.
The move comes five days after the meeting of the city of Genkai, Saga Prefecture, approved a petition calling for acceptance of the first level of research submitted through three organizations.
The law requires that high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants be buried more than three hundred meters underground. It also requires three-stage studies to be carried out to choose potential disposal sites.
On Wednesday, a senior official at the Ministry of Industry delivered a letter from the minister requesting the investigation to Genkai Mayor Wakiyama Shintaro.
The mayor said he was taking the assembly’s approval seriously and would give a response.
This is the second case in which the central government has asked a local government to accept the investigation, following the first one in the village of Kamoenai in northern Hokkaido Prefecture in 2020.
The first-stage investigation is carried out after a government has requested it or accepted a request from the central government.
The city of Genkai is home to a nuclear power plant. The investigation would be the first of its kind in a municipality where a nuclear power plant is located.
These surveys were conducted in Kamoenai Village and Suttu City, Hokkaido.
Several other mayors of the city had expressed their intention to accept the investigation. A municipality that accepts the first survey will get a subsidy of up to 2 billion yen, or more than $12 million. None of them officially accepted the investigation after facing local opposition. .
The central government needs to increase the number of test sites, as securing parking spaces has long been one of the most demanding situations in Japan’s nuclear industry.