We will not Allow the Shimokita Peninsula to Become a Nuclear Waste Dump Yard!
By Komura Kazuo (Former Aomori Prefectural Assembly Member, Co-Director of the Aomori Prefecture Citizens’ Association to Protect the Future from Nuclear Waste)
On July 27, 1984, the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) formally proposed the siting of nuclear fuel cycle facilities to Aomori Prefecture and Rokkasho Village. Since then 40 years has passed, and I would like to report today’s situation in Aomori.
Mutsu interim spent fuel storage facility
In Mutsu City, located in the northernmost area of Honshu, the main island of Japan, an interim spent fuel storage facility (Recyclable Fuel Storage Center, which can accommodate 3,000 tons of spent fuel in dry casks usable for both transportation and storage) has been built. This facility is run by Recyclable-Fuel Storage Company (RFS), which is jointly owned by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) and the Japan Atomic Power Company. TEPCO recently announced a plan to transport spent fuel from its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Station to the facility between July and September this year. Accordingly, Aomori Prefecture submitted a “Safety Agreement (Proposal)” to the prefectural assembly because its conclusion between the Prefecture, Mutsu City, and RFS is a precondition for operation of the facility. Between July 2 and 5, explanatory gatherings about the proposed Safety Agreement were held for local residents in six cities (Aomori, Mutsu, Hachinoe, Towada, Hirosaki and Goshogawara)[1], and we, the Group of Aomori Prefecture Residents, encouraged members to proactively participate in the gatherings and have our opinions heard.
The proposed Safety Agreement states that the storage duration of spent fuel in each cask will be limited to 50 years and that all the casks will be relocated from the facility before the end of the period. When asked at the gatherings if a reprocessing plant to which the waste would be transported would be available in 50 years, the Resources and Energy Agency and the operators tried to play a trick, covering up the failure of the nuclear fuel cycle: “The waste will be sent to a reprocessing plant that will be in service at the time of the relocation.” “Carrying the waste to the Rokkasho reprocessing plant is a possibility.” “We have no plan to relocate the waste to sites other than a reprocessing plant.” While the nuclear fuel cycle is in deadlock, with the failing “pluthermal” operation using MOX fuel and yet-to-be-completed Rokkasho reprocessing plant, the planned unreasonable execution of transportation and storage of the spent fuel, which will be neither reprocessed nor relocated from the facility, may end up making Mutsu City a permanent nuclear storage location, which is unacceptable to the Aomori population.
Strategic Energy Plan
The Strategic Energy Plan, in which the government establishes the direction of the national energy policy, is reviewed triennially, 2024 being a year in which it should be reviewed. However, in December 2022, the Kishida cabinet of the LDP-Komeito administration announced its intention of making utmost use of nuclear power plants and promoting nuclear power, using carbon emission reductions as an excuse. The government aims to permit the operation of aged plants beyond 60 years and the replacement of existing reactors with “new-generation,” “innovative” reactors. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster the government decided to run fewer nuclear plants, but today it is restoring the pre-disaster nuclear policy.
The FEPC chairperson said that the existing Strategic Energy Plan should be drastically reviewed and that the statement that the number of nuclear reactors should be lowered should be deleted, while requesting financial support from the government to build new reactors, add reactors to existing stations, and replace existing reactors.
Nuclear waste will continue to be dumped in Aomori Prefecture
The last year was the 70th anniversary of the national government’s first budget for nuclear power. However, even today, the government is confused about how to dispose of nuclear waste generated by the plants. There is nowhere in Japan that is suitable as a final disposal site for high-level nuclear waste. The government however does not hesitate to build new nuclear plants or add reactors to existing stations, thus increasing nuclear waste. This is flabbergasting. An immense amount of money has been spent on the crippled Fukushima reactors during these last 13 years but still it is unknown when their decommissioning will be completed. How many locals will the government victimize and cause anxieties for before it gives up nuclear power?
In June last year, the governor of Aomori Prefecture changed for the first time in 20 years. The new governor, Miyashita Soichiro, is as positive as, or more positive than, the former governor, Mimura Shingo, in promoting the nuclear fuel cycle and nuclear power. Governor Miyashita, formerly mayor of Mutsu City, was already under the spell of the nuclear cycle and nuclear money when he was in his former position. Concerning the recent plan to bring spent nuclear fuel to the Mutsu interim storage facility, he says that the fuel should be placed in the facility irrespective of whether the Rokkasho reprocessing plant has any outlook for operating or not. I believe that the governor wishes to receive nuclear money (“nuclear fuel cycle taxes” paid to the prefecture). His intention is apparent. I am concerned that the national government and power operators believe that they can maneuver the prefecture as they want, taking unfair advantage of the prefecture with such money. For the information of NIT readership, part of the current inventory of nuclear waste placed in the nuclear fuel cycle facilities in the prefecture is shown in the Table 1 below.
We are responsible for protecting the future
I will turn 80 years old this year. I will be unable to see the future of the waste myself. Therefore today, driving my old bones, I would like to raise the flag against nuclear cycle and for freedom from nuclear power, to reduce, even a little, negative burdens inherited by the youth and future generations. To hand over an Aomori Prefecture where people can live safely and peacefully, we are determined to make our utmost efforts.
Concerned about the possibility of the prefecture being turned into a nuclear waste dump while people are not aware of it, we worked on the movement to establish a prefectural ordinance in 2020 to prevent Aomori Prefecture from becoming the location of the final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste, but the prefectural assembly did not adopt it. Accordingly, in April 2023, we established the Group of Aomori Prefecture Residents Protecting the Future from Nuclear Waste, and anti-nuke, anti-reactor citizens groups, labor groups, farmer groups, individuals, etc. are participating in the movement and are continuing to take action.
June 16 Parade in Aomori City (Author on the right in the front row)
Jointly with the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, the Group of Aomori Prefecture Residents will hold a “Say No to Nuclear Waste” National Forum” on Saturday, November 30 in Aomori City. We are currently making preparations. We would like to cooperate with citizens nationwide to stop the nuclear reactors, which are the source of nuclear waste, and stop nuclear facilities such as the reprocessing plant. We hope to announce the details of the forum in early November.
[1] The handouts (in Japanese) distributed at the explanatory gatherings, including the “Safety Agreement concerning Recyclable Fuel Storage Center (Proposal),” are available at Aomori Prefecture’s website: “We will hold explanatory gatherings for the Aomori population concerning Recyclable Fuel Storage Center”
www.pref.aomori.lg.jp/soshiki/kikikanri/atom/R6setsumeikai-kaisai-rfs.html
