[국제]Public sentiment was divided over Japan’s ‘nuclear waste disposal plant’, including Molotov cocktails in rural villages

[앵커]

Molotov cocktails have appeared in rural Hokkaido, Japan, with a population of less than 3,000.

This is because the conflict between local governments and residents has been deepened by the attraction of nuclear waste treatment plants.

Tokyo correspondent Lee Kyung-ah reports what the story is.

[기자]

Broken glass bottles roll in the front yard.

An elderly man in his 70s who threw a Molotov cocktail at the home of a local mayor was immediately caught by police.

The beginning was that the mayor of the town decided to run as a candidate for a nuclear waste treatment plant amid fierce opposition from neighbors.

[가타오카 하루오 / 홋카이도 슷츠초 읍장 : 제 판단에 따라 핵 폐기물 처리장 선정을 위한 정부 문헌조사에 응모하기로 결정했습니다.]

The Japanese government is looking for a candidate site for the disposal of nuclear waste from nuclear power plants by burying it in the ground.

It is a facility that no one wants, so the government has pledged to give up to 22 billion won in support if it responds to the candidate site’s investigation.

A shrinking town with an aging population without such an industry needs huge subsidies, but the reaction has not abated.

[마을 주민 : 오늘도 얘기를 듣고 점점 공포만 커집니다.” 마을 주민 “마을이 지금 두 쪽 나게 생겼는데 읍장은 핵폐기물 처리장 응모 쪽으로 결정하겠다는 겁니까?]

In this town, 10 km from the Hokkaido Tomari Nuclear Power Plant, residents are trying to attract nuclear waste disposal plants.

With a population of only about 800 people, subsidies to the villages around the nuclear power plant already cover 15% of annual income.

[시바타 마사요시 / 홋카이도 카모에나이무라 주민 : 여기 원전이든 무엇이든 유치하지 않으면 일할 곳이 없어집니다. 처리 가능한 시설을 만들어도 되지 않나 생각합니다.]

The Japanese government plans to increase the share of new and renewable energy in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, but it has no choice but to continue using the nuclear power plant for at least 10 years.

Nuclear waste is inevitably generated as long as there is a nuclear power plant.

The problem of energy policy, which only puts efficiency first without thinking about how to deal with it, has come to be fully assumed by rural towns that are difficult to afford.

I’m Kyungah Lee from YTN in Tokyo.

[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]