Small Pacific Island Asked to Accept Survey for Nuclear Disposal

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) requested the Chief of Ogasawara village in Tokyo prefecture, Masaaki Shibuya, to accept “literature survey” for building final disposal site of nuclear waste in Minamitorishima Island, the southern-most place in territory of Japan. Shibuya answered that he would consider it. Ogasawara village became the fourth municipality in Japan to be the candidate of building final disposal site for nuclear waste produced in nuclear power plants. 

Japan has 19,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel, but it does not have a final disposal site. Although Final Disposal Act of 2000 requires the government to have geological disposal for spent nuclear waste, it has even not determined where the final disposal site should be built, because no local community agreed on building it. While it has not determined the final disposal, Japanese government is promoting reprocessing nuclear waste by transforming it into vitrified waste.

 

To decide the location of final disposal site, the government of Japan makes three kinds of researches: literature survey, preliminary investigation and detailed investigation. Since 2002, the government was looking for a city which would accept the survey, but no local city stepped forward. It was 2020 when Suttsu town and Kamoenai village in Hokkaido accepted literature survey for the first time in Japan. Genkai town in Saga raised hand in 2024 as the third candidate.

 

Although a municipality that accepted literature survey can receive 2 billion yen of subsidy from the national government, most cities and towns does not accept the survey. People in local cities are worried about negative impact of final disposal site, because it takes a hundred thousand years for the vitrified waste to be harmless. Possible accident in the final disposal site causes notoriety of its local products.

 

Minamitorishima has some advantages for final disposal. The island is located in the middle of Pacific Ocean, 2,000 kilometers away from Tokyo. No one lives on that small island with only 1.5 square kilometer. The national government owns the island. The waste is supposed to be buried underground with 300 meters or more depth. Minamitorishima is on the Pacific Plate, distant from the Japan Trench where plates collide each other, causing some major earthquake.

 

However, some residents in Ogasawara village are worried about negative image on their region, which is designated as World Natural Heritage of United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2011. A final disposal site of nuclear waste may damage impression of the place with rich nature. A governor has power to reject a preliminary investigation. Ogasawara village is in the prefecture of Tokyo. Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, is watching how Ogasawara village will respond to the request of METI. Final disposal of nuclear waste in the middle of Pacific Ocean may also raise international dispute.

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