Tokyo, 27 September, /AJMEDIA/
The mayor of Tsushima in southwestern Japan said Wednesday he has decided against applying to the state for a preliminary survey to gauge the city’s suitability to host an underground disposal site for highly radioactive waste from nuclear power generation.
“There is insufficient consensus among the public,” Mayor Naoki Hitakatsu said at a city assembly session, with some fearing the potential impact on tourism and primary industries such as fisheries.
Tsushima is located on a remote island in Nagasaki Prefecture and is closer to South Korea’s Busan, 50 kilometers away, than major Japanese cities.
Opponents of the plan had also said it would not be appropriate for the city to host a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste given the history of the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki city in 1945.
Hitakatsu himself had raised worries about hosting a disposal site, saying, “The risks that may arise from unperceived factors cannot be ruled out.”
The decision by the mayor, who may seek a third four-year term after his current term expires in March, comes in contrast with the assembly’s approval on Sept. 12 of a request filed by local construction groups urging the city to accept the survey.
The groups and other proponents argued that state subsidies of 2 billion yen for accepting the survey could be used for measures to rev up the shrinking city’s economy and support child rearing.
The central government is looking for municipalities willing to accept the preliminary surveys, the first step in a three-stage process spanning around 20 years to select a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste. So far only two municipalities in Hokkaido have accepted the surveys, giving them the green light in 2020.
The surveys, conducted by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, a quasi-government body in Tokyo, involve checking land conditions and volcanic activity based on published geological sources.
Following Tsushima’s decision, the central government said it will continue efforts to find more areas to carry out preliminary surveys.
“We are very grateful that Tsushima showed interest and had considered” accepting the survey, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno at a press conference.
Fast-aging Tsushima, where the number of residents fell below 30,000 in 2020, depends on squid fishing and pearl farming but is struggling to find young people to carry on the running of its industries.
The city was identified on a map of potential disposal sites released by the central government in 2017.
Japan, like many other countries with nuclear plants, is struggling to find permanent disposal sites.
High-level radioactive waste, produced when extracting uranium and plutonium from spent fuel, must be stored in bedrock at least 300 meters underground for tens of thousands of years until the radioactivity declines to levels that do not pose harm to human health or the environment.
