A nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which has been closed since an accident in 1997, reopened Thursday for what the operator says are checkups.
The state-run Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, formerly the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp., closed the facility in March 1997 after a fire and explosion exposed 37 workers to radiation.
The Tokai village and Ibaraki Prefectural Governments have not given permission for full operations to resume at the plant.
The institute said it is opening the plant again merely to conduct checkups, not to resume operations. It plans to reprocess 5.7 tons of spent fuel stored inside the plant in about a month.