The mayor of Hitachiota in Ibaraki Prefecture has said his city cannot sustain itself into the future unless it attracts a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste — the spent fuel residue known in Japan as "nuclear waste." Suzuki Sadayuki made the remark in an interview with NHK.
A literature survey — the first stage of the national process for choosing a disposal site, in which documents and geological records are studied — has begun in Hitachiota. The interview was Suzuki's response to questions about that survey.
Suzuki said that unless the city hosts a final disposal site or similar facility, it will not be able to keep going over the long term. He did not elaborate in the portion of the interview available.
The remark places the waste question inside the arithmetic of a shrinking municipality. Towns that enter the survey process become eligible for central government subsidies, a factor that has drawn depopulating areas into a procedure that can end in a community hosting high-level waste.