A visiting official from the industry ministry on Thursday apologized to the town of Oi, Fukui Prefecture, over the government's failure to create a new nuclear watchdog by April 1, but stressed that the town's idled atomic reactors have passed all the requisite safety tests to resume operations.
Reactors 3 and 4 at Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Oi nuclear power station were the first to pass the government's stress tests, which employ computer simulations to gauge nuclear plants' robustness in the event of a massive, unforeseen natural disaster. The tests were introduced after the triple-meltdown crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant last March.
Security was tight ahead of two meetings in Oi on Thursday, at which officials from the central government attempted to explain the state's rationale for approving restarts at the two reactors to local municipal officials and residents, and antinuclear activists appeared to have been kept at bay.