Japanese
mayor approves plan to restart nuclear power plant
Country
may return to nuclear power for first time since all reactors were
turned off after Fukushima disaster
14
June, 2012
Japan has
taken a potentially decisive step towards restarting two of its idled
nuclear reactors after the mayor of a town located near a power plant
approved plans to bring it back into operation.
The
country has been without
nuclear power since 5 May,
when a reactor in the northern island of Hokkaido became the last of
50 working reactors to be shut down in the wake of
the Fukushima nuclear
disaster.
Four
other reactors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant
were badly damaged when the plant was hit by a magnitude-9.0
earthquake and 14-metre tsunami on
11 March 2011.
Dozens
of others have been closed for regular maintenance, and cannot be
restarted until they pass
stress tests introduced
by the government last year to address public concerns over safety.
Shinobu
Tokioka, the mayor of Oi, a town in Fukui prefecture, said he had
been persuaded to support the restart after the prefecture's nuclear
safety commission said earlier this week that necessary safety
measures had been put in place. Tokioka, who founded a company that
supplies pipes and other materials to the plant, added he was
concerned about possible power shortages and the impact on the local
economy if the plant remained closed.
Issei
Nishikawa, the governor of Fukui prefecture – Japan's "nuclear
alley" with 13 reactors – is also expected to approve the
measure.
The
Japanese prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, is expected to make the
decision official on Saturday. The reactors would be switched back on
immediately, although they would not reach full output until the end
of July.
Pressure
has been mounting for the restart amid warnings that the Kansai
region of western Japan, which includes the industrial city of Osaka,
could suffer power shortages during peak demand this summer.
The
plant's operator, Kansai Electric Power, forecast that without the Oi
reactors, the region would suffer power shortages of around 15% in
July and August, and has asked customers to cut usage by at least 15%
on weekdays for three months from July.
The
utility's projections show that Kansai, a region of 24 million people
with an economy the size of Australia's, would still suffer shortages
even if the reactors were switched back on.
Noda
does not require local approval for the restart, but has been
attempting to build support in areas near the plant due to widespread
opposition to nuclear power post-Fukushima. Only two of 11 municipal
governments within a 18 mile (30km) radius of the Oi plant support
the restart, according to a recent survey by Kyodo.
Last
week, Noda said a prolonged nuclear shutdown could put Japan's
national survival at risk. "Cheap and stable electricity is
vital," he said in a televised speech. "If all the reactors
that previously provided 30% of Japan's electricity supply are
halted, or kept idle, Japanese society cannot survive."
Supporters
of the restart have warned that, without nuclear power, utilities
would be more dependent on fossil fuels, driving up electricity bills
and putting Japan's climate change obligations at risk.
Noda
said the government had done enough to ensure the No 3 and No 4
reactors at Oi would not leak radiation if they were struck by an
earthquake and tsunami as powerful as those that wrecked Fukushima
Daiichi.
He
received a boost late last month when Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of
Osaka, ditched his opposition to the restart, although Noda still
faces opposition from MPs inside his own party.
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