Kyushu Electric Power Co. on Tuesday reactivated the No. 1 reactor of its Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture — the first under the new safety standards introduced in response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The Abe administration and the power industry push for restarting the nuclear power plants idled in the wake of the meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 plant once they have cleared the screening by the Nuclear Regulation Authority. However, a majority of people in various opinion polls continue to oppose the restart of the plants, which indicates that the public's safety concerns over nuclear power have not been dispelled more than four years after the disaster.
It is questionable if the government and the power companies have fully addressed the problems exposed by the 2011 disaster — which has left tens of thousands of people in Fukushima still displaced due to radiation fallout — as they seek to reactivate the idled plants in the name of ensuring a stable supply of electricity.
The restart of the Sendai plant came 11 months after Kyushu Electric became the first of the nation's power firms to get the NRA's nod in the screening based on what the government touts as the world's most stringent nuclear power plant safety standard. The No. 2 reactor at the plant, which also cleared the NRA's screening in September last year, is expected to be reactivated as early as October.