Towns look to nuclear waste site for survival

Two remote towns in northern Japan struggling with rapidly greying and shrinking populations have signed up to possibly host a high- level radioactive waste storage site as a means of economic survival.

Japanese utility companies have about 16,000 tonnes of highly radioactive spent fuel rods stored in cooling pools or other interim sites, and there is no final repository for them.

Japan is in a dire situation following the virtual failure of an ambitious nuclear fuel recycling plan, in which plutonium extracted from spent fuel was to be used in still- unbuilt fast breeder reactors.

The problem of accumulating nuclear waste came to the fore after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Finding a community willing to host a radioactive dump site is difficult, even with a raft of financial enticements.

Haruo Kataoka, the mayor of Suttsu town on the northwestern coast of Hokkaido, has applied for preliminary government research on whether its land would be suitable for highly radioactive waste storage for thousands of years.

In Kamoenai, just north of Suttsu, village chief Masayuki Takahashi has announced his decision to also apply for an initial feasibility study.

Suttsu, with a population of 2900, and Kamoenai, with about 800 people, have received annual government subsidies as hosts of the Tomari nuclear power plant. But they are struggling financially because of a declining fishing industry and their ageing and shrinking populations.

The preliminary research is the first of three steps in selecting a permanent disposal site, with the whole process estimated to take about two decades.

Municipalities can receive up to 2 billion yen (NZ$28.4 million) in government subsidies for two years by participating in the first stage. Moving on to the next stage would bring more subsidies.

Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki and local fishing industry groups are opposed to hosting such a facility.