Maki Nuclear Power Plant, Nuclear power plant project in Nishikan-ku, Japan
The Maki Nuclear Power Plant is an unfinished nuclear facility in Nishikan-ku, a coastal district of Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan. The site was never completed and no reactor was ever put into operation there.
Tohoku Electric filed a construction application in 1982, but the review process was halted in 1983 following local opposition. After a court ruling in 2003, the company formally withdrew its application the following year.
In the 1990s, local residents voted twice in referendums against the construction of the plant, a rare act of direct democracy in Japan at the time. The votes showed how strongly the community around Maki felt about the project.
The site lies west of central Niigata City, close to the coastline, and can be seen from public roads nearby. Since it is private land with no public access, any visit is limited to viewing from the outside.
Beneath the site lies a village that was buried by a collapsing sand dune in 1971, with buildings and structures still preserved underground. The planned plant was set to be built directly on top of this buried settlement.
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