OSAKA — The first delivery of at least 850 canisters of high-level radioactive vitrified waste arrived Tuesday morning by ship from the U.K. in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, where it will sit in storage for decades before being buried deep underground.
Antinuclear activists argue that with no local government yet willing to host a final disposal site and concern over the international security and environmental risks of transporting so much nuclear waste between the U.K. and Japan, the shipments should end.
About 14 tons of waste in 28 vitrified high-level waste canisters, each of which weighs about 500 kg, arrived at Mutsu Ogawara port at Rokkasho in the morning.