Kansai Electric Power Co. has denied reports earlier this week that it was planning to ship nuclear waste from its Fukui Prefecture plants to the town of Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, after the idea was opposed by Mutsu Mayor Soichiro Miyashita.
"There is no truth to some media reports that our company has established a policy of sending spent fuel to the Mutsu interim storage facility and temporarily storing it," Kepco said in a statement released Sunday.
However, the mayor's opposition is likely to complicate the utility's efforts to make good on its work to assure Fukui Prefecture that spent nuclear fuel will be stored outside the prefecture for a half century before being transferred to another site, also outside Fukui, for permanent disposal.