Unloading of the 30 tons of high-level radioactive waste from a freighter was completed March 13 -- three days behind schedule -- after Aomori Gov. Morio Kimura permitted the ship to enter a local port and unload its cargo.
Kimura gave the green light immediately after he received direct confirmation from Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto that the central government will boost efforts to find a site in another prefecture to permanently store high-level nuclear waste. The meeting was held after Kimura met with three Cabinet ministers.
The British-flagged Pacific Swan had been lying off Mutsu Ogawara port in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, since March 10, because Kimura had refused to accept the load of nuclear waste from spent nuclear fuel reprocessed in France.