Industry minister Yukio Edano apologized Tuesday for his recent remarks that the nation will be without operating nuclear reactors only "momentarily" from May 6, when the last currently active reactor goes offline for maintenance.
"I should have said (the number of operating reactors) will be zero at least for a while," Edano said at a news conference, referring to a speech he delivered Sunday in Tokushima Prefecture.
He said his view remains unchanged that it will be difficult to restart two of the reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui Prefecture before May 5 and that there will be a period of time when no reactors are operating.