A municipal assembly in western Japan has approved a petition calling for an initial investigation into a final repository site for high-level radioactive waste.
The meeting in the city of Genkai, Saga prefecture, convened an ad hoc committee on Thursday to examine the petition submitted through three local groups.
Japanese law requires that high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants be buried more than three hundred meters underground.
The law also requires three-stage studies to be conducted to potential disposal sites.
At Thursday’s meeting, some committee members said the request for a first-stage investigation was aimed at promoting a national debate and that at this stage there would be no discussion about whether or not to settle for a final disposal site. Others expressed fear that the city could simply be the subject of rumors.
The petition was put to a vote and approved by a majority of six members in favour and 3 against.
The petition is expected to be followed up on the floor on Friday.
The mayor of the town will make the final decision on whether or not to settle for an initial investigation.
The city is home to the Genkai Nuclear Power Plant, operated through Kyushu Electric Power Company.
If the petition is approved, it would be the first resolution of its kind adopted through a meeting of a municipality on a nuclear power plant.
In February, a draft report concluded that two municipalities in Hokkaido, northern Japan, could move to the current level after an initial survey conducted for the first time in the country.
But some citizens of both municipalities are calling for similar investigations to be carried out outside Hokkaido.