The Japanese government is planning to revise for the first time in 8 years its basic policy on the final disposal of high-level radioactive waste. A draft version of the new policy gives greater emphasis on the government's own responsibility for finding final disposal sites.

The government says that high-level radioactive waste from nuclear power stations will be buried at a depth of more than 300 meters underground at final disposal sites. It has not yet decided where the disposal sites will be located.

Feasibility surveys are underway at two municipalities in Hokkaido since 2020 to determine if the two candidate areas are suitable as final disposal sites. But no other areas have come forward to become such candidate sites since then.

Local municipalities in Hokkaido have urged the central government to work harder to raise national interest about the issue.

A draft version of the revised policy has the new wording that the government as a whole will tackle the issue of the final disposal at its own responsibility.

The draft calls on the government-backed Nuclear Waste Management Organization, along with utilities that operate nuclear power plants, to visit more than 100 municipalities to encourage some of them to apply to be candidate sites for final disposal.

A new forum would also be set up for discussions with the heads of local governments that host nuclear power plants.

The government hopes that these efforts will help increase the number of candidate areas and promote the selection of final disposal sites.