In Japan, cash-strapped town fears nuclear waste dump will turn it into a ‘graveyard’
- Genkai, population 4,900, is already dependent on the billions of yen in subsidies it receives every year to host a decades-old nuclear power plant
- More money is on offer if it becomes Japan’s first disposal site for high-level nuclear waste. But critics fear another Fukushima-style disaster
But for most locals, anti-nuclear campaigners, and Akiko Makise – a councillor in neighbouring Tosu City – the danger is simply not worth the money.
“Radioactive materials will be left behind that are beyond the scope, capacity and time of mankind to process” if the facility is built, Makise told This Week in Asia.
“We will have to live with constant uncertainty, the threat of not knowing if or when we will have to flee, whether we will be informed of problems at the facility or whether we will ever be able to return to our homes.”
Genkai Mayor Shintaro Wakiyama on Friday approved a feasibility survey for the construction of an underground chamber storing hundreds of tonnes of nuclear waste that will emit high levels of radiation for thousands of years.
