Exploratory drilling for a facility to house waste from the nuclear accident was canceled after local residents blocked access to the site in Kami, Miyagi Prefecture.
Exploratory drilling for a facility to house waste from the nuclear accident was canceled after local residents blocked access to the site in Kami, Miyagi Prefecture.
The Environment Ministry had earmarked the site for final disposal of designated waste, such as rice straw contaminated by radiation due to the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The mayor of Kami, Hirobumi Inomata, was joined by residents in blocking the road leading to the test site on the morning of Oct. 24. They refused entry to Environment Ministry officials overseeing the project.
In a related development, the ministry was also contacted by officials of Kurihara and Taiwa to stop work in those municipalities to prepare for similar drilling tests.
The three municipalities are the candidate sites for the final disposal area.
Work in Kurihara and Taiwa was also stopped as a result.
The two municipalities had agreed to testing on the condition that it was done simultaneously at all three locations.