Japan set to restart nuclear reactors

A power plant operator will restart a reactor in southern Japan today, the first under new safety requirements following the Fukushima disaster and a milestone for the nation’s return to nuclear power.

Kyushu Electric Power said it will restart the No 1 reactor at its Sendai nuclear plant this morning. It will be Japan’s return to nuclear energy since the 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan, following an earthquake and tsunami. The disaster displaced 100,000 people, due to radioactive contamination.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority affirmed the safety of the Sendai reactor, and a second one at the plant, last September, under stricter safety rules imposed after the accident, the worst since the 1986 Chernobyl explosion. The second reactor will be restarted in October.

The Sendai No. 1 reactor will start generating power on Friday and will reach full capacity next month. All of Japan’s 43 operable reactors are offline. Of those, 23 others, including the second Sendai reactor, have applied for safety inspections and restart approvals.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government wants as many of them as possible to be put online to sustain the economy, which now relies on imported energy.

“Our policy is to push forward restarts of reactors that cleared the world’s toughest safety screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority,” Abe told reporters yesterday. “I would like Kyushu Electric to put safety first and take utmost precautions for the restart.”

An energy plan was adopted by the cabinet last year to sustain nuclear power as a key energy supply for resource-poor Japan.

Nuclear power is to provide 20% of the country’s energy needs by 2030.

Despite the push by the government and utilities for nuclear restarts, most Japanese are opposed to it. Residents near the Sendai plant are wary of the restarts, citing potential dangers from active volcanos.

Yesterday, dozens of protesters, including Naoto Kan, prime minister at the time of the Fukushima crisis, rallied outside the Sendai plant in a last-ditch effort to stop the restart, shouting “We don’t need nuclear plants.”

The Fukushima disaster “exposed the myth of safe and cheap nuclear power, which turned out to be dangerous and expensive. Why are we trying to resume nuclear power?” Kan told the crowd.

Opponents of the restarts and nuclear experts are concerned about possible glitches in mothballed reactors that have not been used for more than four years and that evacuation plans may not work well.

With its nuclear-fuel recycling programme stalled and plutonium stockpiles triggering international concerns, Japan is under pressure to use as much of its stockpiles as possible.