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Beijing: Japan has restarted its first nuclear reactor since new safety rules were ordered in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, despite vocal public opposition and anxiety.
After months of debate about safety, the No 1 reactor at the 30-year-old Sendai nuclear power plant, on the southwest island of Kyushu, became the first to be brought back to life on Tuesday morning. The reactor, one of 25 which have applied to restart, will begin generating power by Friday and reach full capacity next month.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made the restart of the country's nuclear energy industry a priority of his administration, with the hiatus sending electricity bills soaring, providing a drag on his so-called Abenomics reforms, and serving to highlight Japan's dependence on energy imports.
But with the scars of Fukushima yet to fade, newspaper polls have shown a majority of Japanese oppose the restart. Mr Abe's personal approval ratings have also plumbed new depths, having also come under fire for pushing through a controversial new national security bill that will see Japanese troops fight overseas for the first time since World War II.
On Monday, Mr Abe sought to reassure the public that the tougher standards now mandated after the 2011 disaster meant reactors would only be restarted after passing "the world's toughest safety screening".
"I would like Kyushu Electric to put safety first and take utmost precautions for the restart," he said.
Yoshihide Suga, the chief cabinet secretary, said "it is important for our energy policy to push forward restarts of reactors that are deemed safe".
But local residents said they are worried about potential dangers from active volcanoes in the region, and there was no clarity around the evacuation plans for nearby hospitals and schools.
An Asahi Shimbun newspaper survey found only two of 85 medical institutes and 15 of 159 nursing and other care facilities within a 30-kilometre radius of the Sendai plant had proper evacuation plans.
About 220,000 people live within a 30-kilometre radius – the size of the Fukushima no-go zone – of the Sendai plant.
"You will need to change where you evacuate to depending on the direction of the wind. The current evacuation plan is nonsense," Shouhei Nomura, a 79-year-old former worker at a nuclear plant equipment maker, who now opposes atomic energy and is living in a protest camp near the plant told Reuters.
The problems besetting the Fukushima clean-up has done little to ease the anxiety of Japan's residents. Large areas of the surrounding prefecture are likely to remain uninhabitable for decades.
Protesters at Sendai were rallied by Naoto Kan, who was prime minister at the time of the Fukushima crisis. He said the disaster had "exposed the myth of safe and cheap nuclear power, which turned out to be dangerous and expensive".
"We don't need nuclear plants," he said.
