New nuclear era: Japan fires up reactor 4 years after meltdowns

Japan on Tuesday ended a two-year nuclear shutdown in the energy-hungry country, sparked by public fears following the 2011 Fukushima crisis, the worst atomic disaster in a generation. Utility Kyushu Electric Power turned on a reactor at Sendai, about 600 miles southwest of Tokyo Tuesday morning. The 31-year-old reactor — operating under tougher post-Fukushima safety rules — was expected to reach full capacity around 11:00 pm Tuesday and would start generating power by Friday. It is the first of a number of reactors cleared to be restarted under new safety rules. All of Japan’s 43 workable reactors were taken offline in September 2013 pending safety checks.

[The government will] put safety first [in resuming Japan’s use of nuclear power].

Japan’s industry minister Koichi Miyazawa

The reactors had to be relicensed, refitted and vetted under tougher standards introduced in response to the Fukushima disaster. The nuclear meltdown in March 2011 was the worst since Chernobyl and happened after a magnitude-9 earthquake hit the area and triggered a deadly tsunami. Three reactors at the plant went into meltdown and hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated. More than 100,000 people were displaced due to radioactive contamination. Opinion polls show that a majority of the Japanese public opposes the return to nuclear energy.

World