Japan’s Sendai nuclear power station resumes operations

Reactor 1 at Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai complex, located in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, became the first unit to be reactivated under a set of new, stricter regulations imposed after the three meltdowns in Fukushima in March 2011.

The Shinzo Abe government’s energy plan relies heavily on nuclear power, setting a goal to have it meet more than 20 per cent of the country’s energy needs by 2030.

Japan has switched on its first nuclear reactor since the Fukushima disaster four years ago.

The company said it would start generating and delivering electricity on Friday, and enter commercial operation at the plant in early September, a year after regulators approved the resumption of its two reactors.

Workers at the Sendai plant pulled the control rods out of Reactor 1, at 10:30 am local time on Tuesday, triggering nuclear fission for the first time since the reactor was taken offline in May 2011, Kyodo news agency reported.

Anti-atomic sentiment still runs high in Japan and there were reports Tuesday of protesters scuffling with police in front of the Sendai plant, which is on the southernmost island of Kyushu.

This provides more scope for uranium projects to be brought on stream with likely improving uranium price as more reactors are brought on stream by Japan.

The power plant in southern Japan will be operated under new safety requirements following the Fukushima disaster.

Supervisory authorities left all measures of dealing with possible serious accidents at nuclear power plants before the Fukushima crisis up to electric power companies, and were criticized by the Diet’s Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission as “captives of businesses [the electric power companies]”. That leaves 43 operable nuclear reactors in the nation.

Opinion polls, however, show a majority of the public oppose the move after the 2011 disaster, which was triggered by the quake and tsunami. “Accepting them as permanently closed would have financial implications that would be hard to manage”, said Tomas Kaberger, chairman of the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation.

The disaster displaced more than 100,000 people due to radioactive contamination in the area and spurred a national debate over this resource-scarce country’s reliance on nuclear power.

“In the event of an accident, the government will deal with it with responsibility”, Miyazawa said.

“It is big business demanding a stable supply of power by resuming nuclear reactors, not the general public”.

There’s no denying the power of nuclear energy-it’d take lots of wind turbines to match the output of a nuclear plant.

Several other reactors have received a safety green light from officials, but battle lines have been drawn with many local communities strongly against restarting reactors in their region.