A power plant operator in southern Japan restarted a nuclear reactor, the first to begin operating after new safety requirements were put in place following the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdown.
Kyushu Electric Power Co on Tuesday said that it had restarted the No. 1 reactor at its Sendai nuclear plant in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, as planned. The restart marks Japan’s return to nuclear energy after the 2011 meltdown following an earthquake and tsunami.
The plant said the nuclear chain reaction started safely late on Tuesday.
Photo: AFP
National broadcaster NHK showed plant workers in a control room as they turned the reactor back on.
Kyushu Electric spokesman Tomomitsu Sakata said the reactor was put back online without any problems.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster displaced more than 100,000 people due to radioactive contamination and spurred a national debate over this resource-scarce nation’s reliance on nuclear power.
A majority of Japanese oppose the return to nuclear energy. Dozens of protesters — including former Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan, who was in office at the time of the disaster and has become an outspoken critic of nuclear power — were gathered outside the plant as police stood guard.
“Accidents are unpredictable, that’s why they happen. And certainly not all the necessary precautions for such accidents have been taken here,” Kan said to about 300 people.
The Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority affirmed the safety of the Sendai reactor and another one at the plant in September last year under stricter safety rules imposed after the 2011 accident, the worst since the 1986 Chernobyl explosion.
The Sendai No. 1 reactor is scheduled to start generating power tomorrow and reach full capacity next month. The second Sendai reactor is due to restart in October.
Japanese Minister of International Industry and Trade Yoichi Miyazawa said on Tuesday that the government would “put safety first” in resuming use of nuclear power.
All of Japan’s 43 workable reactors were idled for the past two years pending safety checks. To offset the shortfall in power output, the nation ramped up imports of oil and gas and fired up more thermal power plants.
Miyazawa said nuclear power is “indispensable” for Japan.
“It would be impossible to achieve all these three things simultaneously: Keep nuclear plants offline, while also trying to curb carbon dioxide and maintain the same electricity cost. I hope to gain the public’s understanding of the situation,” Miyazawa said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sought to have the reactors restarted as soon as possible to help reduce costly reliance on imported oil and gas and alleviate the financial burden on utilities.
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