By Tsuyoshi Inajima
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) — Kyushu Electric Power Co. said it plans to restart a reactor at its Genkai nuclear plant in southwestern Japan that was shut due to a malfunction in early October.
Should the reactor be brought online it will be the first to do so since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.
Kyushu Electric aims to restart the 1,180-megawatt No. 4 reactor in “several” days, Yuki Hirano, spokesman at the Fukuoka, Japan-based company, said by phone today. He declined to comment further on the plan.
Kyushu Electric is at the center of a controversy involving attempts by Japan’s power companies to influence public opinion in favor of nuclear energy after the Fukushima nuclear disaster undermined public confidence in the industry. The company needs to get the agreement of local residents and authorities before it can restart the reactor.
“Kyushu Electric needs to ascertain whether it can obtain the understanding of local residents,” Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano said today, the Asahi newspaper reported.
Continue reading at Kyushu Electric Plans to Restart Reactor After Repairing Fault
◇ Article in Japanese:
・玄海原発４号機 運転再開へ準備 via NHK web news
