Japan restarts another reactor

TOKYO: A Japanese utility on Wednesday switched on a nuclear reactor, the latest to come back in service despite deep public opposition in the aftermath of the Fukushima crisis.

Japan shut down all of its dozens of reactors after a powerful earthquake in March 2011 spawned a huge tsunami that led to meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing the world’s worst such accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

But only a handful of reactors have come back online due to public opposition and as legal cases work their way through the courts.

On Wednesday, Kansai Electric Power (Kepco) restarted the No 4 reactor at the Takahama nuclear plant after a court in March cleared the move.

The latest restart at the plant in Fukui prefecture, some 350 kilometres west of Tokyo, came after court battles that lasted more than a year during which a district court near Fukui ordered Kepco to suspend operations.

The Fukui government, where the nuclear industry is a major employer, approved the reactor’s restart but concerned residents in neighbouring Shiga prefecture asked their local court to stop the move.