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Japan Releases Map of Areas Suitable for Nuclear Waste Disposal

  • Map to help determine ideal location for underground storage
  • Plan is to reprocess fuel to separate out high-level waste
The spent fuel pool inside the Fukushima Dai-Ni nuclear power plant.

The spent fuel pool inside the Fukushima Dai-Ni nuclear power plant.

Source: Japan National Press Club Pool via Bloomberg

Japan released a map identifying areas of the country suitable for nuclear waste disposal as part of a broader plan to figure out what to do with roughly 18,000 tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste.

The map highlights areas that aren’t near fault lines, volcanoes or ground where temperatures are high -- thus making them highly likely to be adequate for storing the so-called high-level radioactive waste consisting primarily of used fuel from nuclear facilities.