Japan will provide a list of suitable locations for a radioactive waste disposal facility by the end of 2016, the Japanese economy, trade and industry minister said as quoted by local media Friday.

Motoo Hayashi confirmed the late-2016 deadline for identifying areas geologically suited to hosting a high-level nuclear waste management facility at a ministerial press conference, according to the Kyodo news service.

It is planned that the proposed permanent storage facility will be constructed nearly 1,000 feet underground, where the nuclear waste will be kept until its radiation levels drop to levels deemed safe for humans and the environment.

The Japanese government said it was counting on local administrations to welcome the initiative in view of the new employment opportunities and other economic incentives it presents. The town of Toyo in the Koto prefecture was the only administration to give a green light to the proposal, which it subsequently withdrew.

An independent poll conducted by Kyodo revealed that 13 out of Japan's 47 prefectures oppose the construction of a nuclear waste disposal facility on their territory. Japan's nuclear safety regulations have been tightened in the wake of the powerful March 2011 earthquake that triggered a nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant.

Tokyo Approves Large-Scale Takahama Nuclear Plant Evacuation Plan
Moscow (Sputnik) Dec 19 - The Japanese government on Friday approved an evacuation plan for 180,000 citizens across three prefectures in case of an accident at the Takahama Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture, scheduled to re-launch operation in January.

The plan includes evacuation routes and facilities to be used as shelters as well as measures for people who may be left without an overland escape route. In case of an accident, all residents in a 30-kilometer (17-mile) radius - in Fukui, Kyoto and Shiga prefectures - will be evacuated.

Safety requirements for nuclear reactors were tightened after the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011. Most nuclear reactors remain offline in Japan.

Under a governmental plan, Japan is set to accelerate efforts to reactivate 21 reactors at 14 nuclear power stations across the country. The government seeks to make atomic power generation meet at least 20 percent of Japan's overall electricity demand by 2030.

Two nuclear reactors at the Takahama plant are scheduled to start operations in January-February.

Source: Sputnik News