Japan town says no to nuclear waste facilities

TOKYO - A small Japanese town passed a resolution yesterday banning the construction of nuclear waste storage facilities there, the latest sign of growing grass-roots opposition to nuclear power after a string of accidents. The town council of Yaku in Kagoshima prefecture, 980 km (610 miles) southwest of Tokyo, unanimously adopted a resolution opposing any plans to build a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel. Although there are no official plans to build a plant in the area, a local power plant had been rumoured to be interested in doing so. In the first ever move of its kind, the council also planned to adopt later this month an ordinance barring the entry of radioactive materials into the town, Kyodo news agency said. The councils move comes amid growing public criticism of Japans nuclear energy policy following a series of accidents in recent years. The country saw its worst-ever nuclear accident last September when a mishap at a uranium processing plant killed one worker and exposed more than 100 people to radiation. Nuclear energy covers about one-third of the resource-poor nations electricity demand. Trade Minister Takashi Fukaya said on Friday that the central government would begin a sweeping review of its energy policy, a move that is likely to lead to cuts in plans to build as many as 20 new nuclear reactors by 2010. Fukaya said it might be difficult to achieve the current nuclear expansion target given changing circumstances facing the energy industry. REUTERS NEWS SERVICE