NHK has learned that Japan’s government is planning to ask a city in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, for approval to conduct a survey to choose a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.
Sources say the industry ministry is making final arrangements to request permission from the city of Hitachiomiya to carry out a literature survey to examine safety of the location.
That’s the first of the three-stage process to select a final disposal site. Literature surveys are already underway in four other municipalities.
Hitachiomiya City borders Tochigi Prefecture and has a population of about 35,000, which is now on a sharp decline. Forests account for about 60 percent of the city.
The government has created a color-coded map of scientific features depicting geological conditions of prospective sites for the survey.
The map shows the entire city of Hitachiomiya as having a relatively high possibility of desirable characteristics. Part of the city’s southeast, in particular, is also believed to have favorable transport conditions.
The four municipalities where the first-stage surveys are underway are Suttsu Town and Kamoenai Village in Hokkaido, Genkai Town in Saga Prefecture and Ogasawara Village in Tokyo.
Ogasawara was the first municipality that the government had directly asked for a survey without waiting for an application from a local government. Hitachiomiya will be the second such example if the ministry moves forward with the request.
Whether Hitachiomiya will accept a literature survey will be the focus of attention.
When a municipality accepts the survey, it will receive up to 2 billion yen, or about 12.5 million dollars, in government grants.
The four municipalities that allowed the survey are calling on the government not to limit it to a few regions. The government said in July that it will aim to broaden areas for the survey.
High-level radioactive waste is vitrified in canisters. In Japan, under legislation approved in 2000, any final disposal facility must be more than 300 meters below ground. The waste must be stored there for tens of thousands of years, away from human habitats.
AloJapan.com