SALON

Thursday, Jul 5, 2012 5:45 AM UTC

Japan reactor on grid in 1st post-tsunami restart

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Japan reactor on grid in 1st post-tsunami restart@‘å”ÑŒ´”­‚R †‹@‚ª”­“d‚ðŠJŽn‚µ A o—Í‚ª•Ž¦‚³‚ê‚é’†‰› §ŒäŽº ‚T“úŒß‘O A•ŸˆäŒ§‚¨‚¨‚¢’¬(Credit: AP)

TOKYO (AP) — Nuclear power returned to Japan’s energy mix Thursday as the first reactor to be restarted since last year’s earthquake and tsunami came back online, ending a nationwide shutdown that left the country without nuclear-generated electricity for the first time since 1970.

The reactor at a plant in Ohi, in western Japan, began generating power just ahead of the release of the final report by a parliamentary investigative commission examining the crisis that the tsunami touched off in Fukushima, which suffered meltdowns, explosions and massive radiation leaks.

After the tsunami, all of Japan’s working reactors were gradually taken offline for maintenance or safety checks. The country had been without nuclear power for two months.

Officials say the situation at the Fukushima plant has stabilized, though it will take decades to safely decommission and the area around it remains off limits because it is a health hazard.

Despite rising public opposition to restarts because of the Fukushima crisis, government officials and the utility that runs the Ohi plant say the reactor has passed stringent safety checks. They argue its output is needed to ward off blackouts as Japan enters its high-demand summer months.

“We have finally taken this first step,” said Hideki Toyomatsu, vice president of Kansai Electric Power Co., which operates the plant. “But it is just a first step.”

The company is hoping to restart another reactor in Ohi soon. That could pave the way for other plants around the country. In the meantime, officials have called on the nation to conserve energy.

The resumption of operations in Ohi has been hotly contested in Japan, and coming ahead of the parliamentary commission’s final report has raised questions over how seriously the government is trying to learn from the Fukushima crisis.

Large demonstrations against the restart have been held each week outside of the prime minister’s office, reflecting deep grassroots opposition. Before the crisis, Japan got one-third of its electricity from nuclear plants.

Experts and activists have criticized Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s government, saying it is putting business ahead of safety by going forward with the resumption before studying the findings and recommendations in the report.

The 10-member panel, appointed by parliament in December, has interviewed hundreds of plant workers, company and government officials, including then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

Committee chairman Kiyoshi Kurokawa said the report contains “proposals for the future” and urged the parliament to put them into action. The report was to be submitted later Thursday, and he did not give further details.

Other groups, including a private probe panel, have detailed a serious lack of communication between the government and the Fukushima plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. — or TEPCO — and a failure by both to provide the public with important information on radiation leaks.

Thursday’s report was likely to echo that claim.

An interim report by the parliamentary commission blamed Kan for trying to micromanage Fukushima’s response, which it said made matters worse. It also highlighted a flawed chain of command and lax preparations as factors that worsened the crisis.

The panel has called for a binding guideline for nuclear operators to upgrade safety and crisis plans without taking into consideration their cost efficiency. It is also looking into the role the earthquake itself played in the reactor damage, a key question that has remained unanswered or largely denied in previous reports.

TEPCO, which has already released the results of its own internal investigation, said it found no evidence of major damage from the earthquake. It claims the unanticipated size of the tsunami was the primary cause, but acknowledges its tsunami plans were too optimistic and initial communications were problematic.

More Mari Yamaguchi.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
228 points229 points | 13 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
196 points197 points | 30 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
206 points207 points | 149 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
81 points82 points | 16 comments
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
42 points43 points | 8 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations