The mayor of a town in Fukui Prefecture that hosts a nuclear power plant that just restarted one of its reactors has floated the idea of installing dry cask storage within the plant to keep ever increasing amounts of spent fuel there.

Takahama Mayor Yutaka Nose's idea, though only a suggestion, is rare for someone in his position. Nuclear fuel is supposed to be removed from a power station when it reaches the end of its usefulness. The plant in question is run by Kansai Electric Power Co., which rebooted one of the Takahama reactors earlier this month.

At the same time, Nose called for the central government to get more involved in projects to build temporary storage facilities for spent fuel outside power plants.