A local meeting in western Japan wants its city to undergo an initial investigation with a view to preparing a system for the final disposal of high-level radioactive waste. He took it a step further by requesting an initial investigation as part of the selection process. .
At the meeting held in Genkai City, Saga Prefecture, the petition was approved by a majority on Friday with six members in favor and 3 against.
The city is home to the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant, operated through Kyushu Electric Power Company.
This is the first time that a meeting of a municipality on a nuclear power plant has followed a petition calling for an initial investigation.
A Japanese law requires high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants to be buried more than 300 meters underground and also requires three-stage investigations to choose conceivable locations for final disposal.
A municipality that accepts the first level of the investigation will be presented with a subsidy of up to 2 billion yen, or about $12. 5 million.
The petition was presented to the city council through three local groups: an accommodation operators’ agreement, a catering companies’ agreement, and a crisis control council.
Prior to Friday’s vote, members of the meeting who opposed the petition said no, the deliberations had not taken place in full and that the vote deserved to take a position once the city’s citizens had a broad understanding of the issue.
Parliamentarians who were in favor of the petition pointed out that there were already high-level nuclear weapons in the city and under pressure that this was a challenge that the country needed to address.
The city’s mayor is expected to make the final decision on whether the city will settle for the first investigation. Mayor Wakiyama Shintaro said he would make his position transparent next month.
Meanwhile, Saga Prefecture Governor Yamaguchi Yoshinori told reporters that he had no goal of accepting the final disposition in the prefecture. The governor’s consent is required to proceed with the second-level investigation.
Yamaguchi said he would stick to the discussions in the city and hoped that other people across the country would also reflect on demanding situations similar to this issue.