Japan eyes remote Pacific island for nuclear waste storage: Report
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Tokyo Electric Power Company's Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, one of the world's largest nuclear facilities, in Niigata prefecture, Japan, on Dec 21, 2025.
PHOTO: REUTERS
TOKYO – Japan is proposing a remote Pacific island as a possible host for a nuclear waste disposal site, an important step in the country’s plans to accelerate the restart of atomic power plants.
The local administration responsible for Minamitori Island – the easternmost point of Japan, some 2,000km from Tokyo – is expected shortly to approve a request from the Trade Ministry to conduct a preliminary study into the suitability of the site, the Nikkei newspaper reported on April 13, citing a local official.
Approval for the study would mark a significant development in Japan’s search to find a suitable location to store nuclear waste, even though the initial research alone would take about two years, the Nikkei reported. The entire process of selecting a site could take as long as two decades.
Japan, which took its atomic power plants offline after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, is once more embracing nuclear energy as a way to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels and slash carbon from the energy mix. Where to store spent fuel, however, is a highly sensitive topic as the industry builds up more capacity.
In other locations, such as Taiwan, a lack of consensus over where and how to store waste has contributed to the shutdown of nuclear energy facilities in the past, although the Taiwanese government is now rethinking its approach to atomic power.
In Japan, two fishing villages in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido and a separate location on the island of Kyushu have also expressed interest in hosting waste storage sites, although this has led to debates over safety.
Unlike these locations, the Minamitori site is uninhabited. The island is also significant because – despite the vast distances involved – it falls ultimately under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo metropolitan area government, as opposed to a local prefecture.
The island is administered from Ogasawara village, on a separate island, which received the request from the Trade Ministry in March. The local mayor told residents at a briefing that approval for the study would likely be given, the Nikkei reported. BLOOMBERG
