The assembly of Genkai, Saga Prefecture, approved a petition Friday to accept a “literature survey” to examine the town’s suitability for hosting a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste from nuclear plants.
The petition had been adopted at a special committee meeting all assembly members attended the day before.
With Friday’s majority decision at an assembly plenary meeting, the town in Kyushu became the first host municipality for a nuclear plant to approve such a petition.
Kyushu Electric Power has a nuclear power plant in the town.
Local business groups submitted the petition.
Following the assembly’s approval, Genkai Mayor Shintaro Wakiyama will decide whether the town will apply for the survey.
“I feel that the will of the people is reflected (in the petition), and I take it seriously,” Wakiyama told reporters after the assembly meeting.
He plans to reach his decision in early May or later.
The literature survey, which looks into paper and data, is the first of the three stages in the process of selecting a final disposal site.
Municipalities can decide whether to apply, and those that accept can receive up to ¥2 billion ($12 million) in state subsides over two years.
An area found suitable for a disposal site will move on to the second stage after the consent of the local prefectural governor.
Ahead of the Genkai assembly meeting, Saga Gov. Yoshinori Yamaguchi expressed his opposition to the idea of accepting the literature survey.
As the prefecture hosts Kyushu Electric’s Genkai power plant, “we’re making a contribution to national policy,” he also said at a regular news conference in the prefecture’s capital of Saga.