Kyushu Electric Power Co. received approval from the Kagoshima Prefectural Assembly and governor on Friday to restart two nuclear reactors at the Sendai power plant.

The move clears the last major political hurdles to bring Japan's first two reactors back online, under new nuclear safety regulations introduced in July 2013.

However, some towns and villages that lie within 30 km of the plant have doubts about the restart and are demanding they, too, be consulted as part of promises by the central government and the utility to seek local consensus prior to restarting the units.