Japan starts up another nuclear reactor

The Japanese government has restarted another nuclear power reactor, triggering yet another wave of anti-nuclear sentiment in a country where "nuclear" always means political disputes.

The nuclear power plant at Sendai, 620 miles) southwest of Tokyo, was turned back on at mid-morning on Oct. 15. The No. 1 reactor at the same site was restarted in August.

Utility Kyushu Electric Power, the company that oversees the network of nuclear power reactors, turned off all 50 plants more than two years ago, after extensive problems and a near-meltdown of the Fukushima reactor, north of the capital.

After the massive earthquake of 2011, a record tsunami swamped the Fukushima facility, causing failure of cooling systems and individual core meltdowns. That led to the total shutdown of all nuclear facilities in 2013, and a large public debate on the use of atomic power.

As the only country ever subjected to an atomic attack, Japan is particularly sensitive to nuclear crises. A large minority of the country wants an end to everything nuclear, including the power plants.

But current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a right-of-center conservative, argued successfully to turn the plants back on. Atomic energy, his government agreed, must be used to prevent any failure of the world's third largest economy.

Even as a small anti-nuclear protest of about 70 people gathered at the Sendai facility, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told the media that plants will be restarted individually after careful safety inspections.

"There is no chance of a change to this policy" of the government, Suga said.

Greenpeace Japan, the most articulate voice in the anti-nuclear campaign, has argued that Japan already produces enough power by non-nuclear means to keep the country well supplied. "Nuclear energy will not make any significant contribution to Japan's energy mix, now or in the foreseeable future," said Mamoru Sekiguchi, Greenpeace Japan's spokesman for energy.

The Fukushima crisis was Japan's first serious problem with atomic energy. Even so, many of the plants were built in the 1950s and 1960s using technology that many consider is now out of date.

That enables Sekiguchi to argue persuasively about what he called "the Abe government's disregard for public safety."