Japan restarts second reactor at Sendai nuclear plant amid widespread public

Japan Thursday restarted a second nuclear reactor after a shutdown triggered by the 2011 Fukushima crisis, as the government pushes to return to a cheaper energy source despite widespread public opposition.

Kyushu Electric Power Co restarted the No 1 unit at the Sendai plant in August after approval from the country’s atomic regulator came following two years of reviews and equipment checks.

Kyushu Electric Power Co said the number 2 reactor at its Sendai nuclear plant was reactivated on Thursday.

“The government is unchanged with its determination that we should restart nuclear reactors that meet the safety standards as we’re now relying on old fuel generators that are forcedly put into operation”, Suga added.

The meltdowns at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi plant on March 11, 2011, caused a release of radioactive material and forced 160,000 people from their homes, many of which may never return.

Engineers will now spend several days bringing the newly restarted reactor up to operational level before running it commercially from November.

“Nuclear energy will not make any significant contribution to Japan’s energy mix – not now or in the foreseeable future”, said Mamoru Sekiguchi, energy campaigner at Greenpeace Japan.

After Fukushima, all nuclear power plants in Japan were either closed or their operations were suspended. Before the disaster, nuclear reactors provided nearly 30 percent of Japan’s power needs.

The government sees nuclear power as necessary for the country to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to reduce climate change and wants to benefit from the relatively low production costs of nuclear power.

The plant, in the country’s southern Kagoshima prefecture, on the southern island of Kyushu, also hosts the only other reactor to have been restarted since the disaster, which saw much of Fukushima prefecture, north of the capital, Tokyo, evacuated in 2011.