Assembly members of a small town 466 miles southwest of Tokyo have unanimously agreed to allow the restart of a nuclear power reactor operated by Shikoku Electric Power Company. In the post-Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster era, gaining political support for a restart has become a critical hurdle to overcome in Japan.
Mayor Kazushiko Yamashita said he would meet with Industry Minister Yoichi Miyazawa this week. After their meeting, he will decided whether or not to agree with plans to restart the power plant, which is in the Ehime Prefecture on the island of Shikoku.
Shikoku Electric was granted approval by Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority for the restart of Unit 3 at the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant in July. With the mayor's approval, the plant could resume commercial operations in 2016, Kyodo News Agency reported.
Even with regulatory clearance, restarting requires additional tests and procedural checks that the NRA needs to sign off on. The decision made Tuesday, however, was made in step with central government's approval of the company's evacuation plan for the area, should that be necessary.
Meanwhile, Unit 2 at the Sendai nuclear power plant, 750 miles southwest of Tokyo, is expected to restart on Oct. 15.
Kyushu Electric Power Company, which runs the plant on Japan's third largest island, Kyushu, said it completed loading 157 fuel assemblies into Unit 2 on September 13. The company restarted Unit 1 in August. With one temporary exception, it was the first commercial reactor turned back on since the devastating March 11, 2011 earthquake, known as the Great East Japan Earthquake, which killed close to 16,000 people and displaced 300,000 from their homes.