Aomori Governor Set to OK Facility to Store Spent Nuclear Fuel

By Kyodo News International, Tokyo

Oct. 6–AOMORI — Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura intends to give the nod later this month to a plan by two energy companies to build Japan’s first facility to store spent nuclear fuel until reprocessing, prefectural government officials said Thursday.

Mimura will meet with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda on Friday to secure a pledge that spent fuel will be moved out of the facility after 50 years and the facility will never be a permanent dumping site for such fuel, the officials said.

The governor agreeing to construction of the facility is conditional on such a commitment by the central government, the officials said, citing environmental concerns.

Mimura will also make a similar request in meetings with Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Shoichi Nakagawa on Friday, and Nariaki Nakayama, minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology, next Wednesday, the officials said.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Japan Atomic Power Co. jointly plan to build a facility in Mutsu in the prefecture to temporarily keep up to 5,000 tons of spent fuel from nuclear power plants.

Faced with an increasing stockpile of spent fuel, the companies have been asking the city and prefectural governments to grant them building concessions.

Mutsu Mayor Masashi Sugiyama expressed readiness to accept the plan in June 2003, hoping that state subsidies expected from such a project would help reduce the city’s fiscal deficit.

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