The predecessor of the government's Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute selected more than 40 sites in 12 prefectures as candidates for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in the late 1980s, according to a citizens' group monitoring nuclear issues.
The candidate sites selected by Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. from 1986 to 1988 were in Hokkaido, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima, Niigata, Nagano, Gifu, Ehime, Kochi, Nagasaki, Miyazaki and Kagoshima, according to a report obtained by the group, called Citizens Net Gifu.
The Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute said it is not bound by the report, but members of the antinuclear group are concerned the candidates will be reconsidered if the institute has difficulties choosing new disposal sites.
The group obtained the report under the information disclosure law, but the nuclear institute chose not to identify the specific candidate municipalities.