TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Minamisoma City, about 20 km north of the crisis-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, became the country's first city since the crisis to pull back from plans to host a future nuclear plant by giving up a windfall from government subsidies, as safety concerns cast doubts over nuclear power's future.
Minamisoma has decided not to request infrastructure subsidies offered by the central government to communities that agree to house new nuclear plants, which it has been receiving since 1986 in conjunction with Tohoku Electric Power's plan to build a plant on the city's southern border.
Communities have shown increasing wariness toward new nuclear power projects since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan triggered a protracted radiation crisis at Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi plant, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years ago.