TSUSHIMA, Nagasaki Prefecture--A sleepy island north of Kyushu has been awakened by a controversial proposal to accept a rich government bounty for agreeing to a survey for selecting the site of a nuclear waste repository. 

Proponents and opponents clashed at a special committee meeting of the Tsushima city assembly on July 10.

The government has been struggling to find a municipality willing to host the final disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.

It is offering up to 2 billion yen ($14 million) for agreeing to the “bunken chosa” survey of research papers and data, the first of the three-stage site selection process.

The generous subsidy appears to be hard to resist for some in Tsushima as the city’s population has fallen to 28,000 from 70,000 in 1960 and its mainstay fishing and construction industries remain in the doldrums.

A senior official of the Tsushima branch of the Nagasaki construction industry association told the July 10 committee session that the city should apply for the survey, saying, “Tsushima is facing a shrinking population and a declining industry.”

A senior official of a citizens organization disagreed.

“The primary industries of fishing and agriculture, as well as the tourism industry, will be dealt a devastating blow,” the official said. “We also have to consider the feelings of residents of our prefecture that suffered an atomic bombing.”

As many as 11 organizations submitted petitions to the city assembly in June, some calling for applying for the initial survey and others opposed to such a decision.

Assembly members in favor of the survey hope to have the assembly adopt a petition agreeing to the survey as early as August.

The site selection process starts only after a municipality applies for the bunken chosa survey or accepts an offer from the central government.

Whatever petition the city assembly adopts, it is up to the mayor to decide whether to join the process.

Tsushima Mayor Naoki Hitakatsu won re-election in 2020, defeating a candidate who called for hosting the final disposal facility.

The final disposal facility will be constructed more than 300 meters deep underground to house inside bedrock high-level radioactive waste that is generated when spent nuclear fuel is reprocessed to recover uranium and plutonium for recycling.

The bunken chosa survey, which lasts for about two years, evaluates the suitability of a candidate site based on geological and other factors by examining research papers and data on earthquakes and volcanoes, among other variables. 

The town of Suttsu and the village of Kamoenai, both in Hokkaido, were the first municipalities to apply for the survey.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization of Japan (NUMO) has been conducting the survey for the two municipalities since November 2020.

Suttsu and Kamoenai each received 2 billion yen in government subsidies over the two years through fiscal 2022.

About three years ago, some Tsushima city assembly members worried about the city’s economic difficulties got in touch with the NUMO behind closed doors.

NUMO representatives visited the Tsushima chamber of commerce and industry in spring 2021 and explained about the situations in Suttsu and Kamoenai to its directors.

The representatives emphasized that Kamoenai decided to apply for the survey following a petition that the village’s chamber of commerce and industry submitted to the village assembly.

“I felt that we were told, with a carrot being dangled in front of us, ‘Why don’t you do the same thing in Tsushima?’” recalled one person who attended the meeting.

The Tsushima chamber of commerce and industry is among the organizations that submitted a petition calling for applying for the survey in June. 

The bunken chosa survey will be followed by a four-year boring survey, for which up to 7 billion yen will be provided in subsidies, and a 14-year final-stage survey in which an underground research facility will be built.

A Tsushima city assembly member said the city should at the very least take the 2 billion yen by applying for the initial survey.

“It does not matter whether the final disposal facility will be located on Tsushima,” said another city assembly member in favor of the survey. “If we apply for the survey and have the government owe us one, that will bring us something.”

Others are not so optimistic, however.

“Once we apply for the survey, the government will not let us walk away even if we express opposition later,” said a fisherman opposed to the plan. “The 2 billion yen is a ticking time bomb, not something to prime the economy.”

Without any prospect of securing the final disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste, Japan’s nuclear energy policy has been compared to an “apartment without a toilet.”

The administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, which has reinstated nuclear power as a pillar of the nation’s energy mix, said the government is fully committed to finding a municipality that will host the facility.

A senior official of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tsushima is not expected to apply for the survey at the end of the day because the mayor is cautious.

Still, industry minister Yasutoshi Nishimura welcomed the latest development in Tsushima.

The government expects that other municipalities, seeing Tsushima’s interest, will apply for the survey or that local organizations submit petitions calling for assemblies to support the idea.

The government said 10 or so candidate sites are necessary if similar projects in European countries offer any kind of road map.

Kishida told a Diet session in March that it is vital to expand the areas where the bunken chosa survey is being conducted.

Suttsu and Komoenai both remain cautious about hosting the final disposal facility.

“I have no intention at all of accepting nuclear waste,” Suttsu Mayor Haruo Kataoka told a town assembly meeting before the town applied for the survey. “We should stop the process if that is a conclusion we reach after studying and discussing the issue.”

Kamoenai Mayor Masayuki Takahashi has said he will decide if the village should move on to the second-stage survey after fully hearing the opinions of residents.

A senior industry minister official hopes Tsushima's interest will help move the process along.

“If Tsushima’s move attracts public attention, then interest in the issue will spread around the country as people realize that it is not only two municipalities in Hokkaido that are involved,” the official said.

(This article was compiled from reports by Yusuke Ogawa, Kenji Izawa, Satoshi Shinden and Noboru Okada.)