Saga Governor Yasushi Furukawa said he will approve the restarting of two reactors at a nuclear power plant in the prefecture that have been shut down for months due to regular inspections.
Saga Governor Yasushi Furukawa said he will approve the restarting of two reactors at a nuclear power plant in the prefecture that have been shut down for months due to regular inspections.
Furukawa's green light is a cause for concern among local governments wary of restarting nuclear reactors--even if the central government OKs such plans--because of growing safety concerns following the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Furukawa's gesture came after economy minister Banri Kaieda urged him to do so in a meeting June 29.
The No. 2 and No. 3 reactors at the plant, operated by Kyushu Electric Power Co., will be the first to restart among reactors offline for inspections since the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami crippled the Fukushima plant.
"Nuclear plants that are not in danger should operate in accordance with political judgment," Kaieda told Furukawa in the meeting. "It is our responsibility to bring only nuclear plants at serious risk to a halt."
Kaieda also said, "The government will take responsibility for the safety of the No. 2 and No. 3 reactors."
Furukawa cited three conditions for the restart: confirmation of the safety of the plant; approval by the town of Genkai, which hosts the plant; and successful discussions with the prefectural assembly.
All these conditions have apparently been met.
Genkai Mayor Hideo Kishimoto is set to endorse the restart. A senior official with the Liberal Democratic Party, the largest group in the prefectural assembly, said the party will likely respect the intent of the governor.
"My doubts regarding the safety were clarified," Furukawa told reporters at a news conference after his meeting with Kaieda.
In May, the central government told Chubu Electric Power Co. to shut down all reactors at its Hamaoka nuclear plant in Shizuoka Prefecture because the plant sits in an area where a devastating earthquake is expected to strike in the coming decades.
In the June 29 meeting, Kaieda assured Furukawa that in the event of an earthquake, the Genkai plant would not be threatened by a tsunami.
His approval raises the ministry's hopes that other local governments hosting nuclear plants will follow suit.
"All local governments are closely watching the move of Saga Prefecture," said a senior official at the ministry.
The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, an industry group, said Furukawa's gesture is encouraging.
"Even if it is only one plant that will restart, that will have significant ramifications on other plants," said a senior official at the federation.
But Kaieda's reassurance came not from scientific scrutiny of the safety of the plant, but from political calculation. The Naoto Kan administration is eager to allay mounting concerns over a shortfall of electric power supplies in the peak summer season due to shutdowns of many nuclear reactors.
Thirty-five of the nation's 54 commercial reactors are now offline, and many cannot resume operation even after regular checks are completed due to local opposition.
Although Furukawa said he is now convinced of the plant's safety, it is doubtful that many people living in areas surrounding the plant will be equally convinced.
The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, regulator of the nuclear industry, scrambled to examine whether plant operators are equipped to deal with measures against earthquakes and tsunami after the March 11 disaster.
But those checks only cover a short-term span. The central government has yet to work on a wholesale review of safety guidelines for the design of nuclear reactors and quake-resistance.
Fukui Prefecture, home to 13 commercial reactors, the most in the nation, has made it clear that it will not accept any central government plans to restart any of its offline reactors under present conditions.
A study by The Asahi Shimbun found that many of the governors in prefectures with nuclear plants said they will only consider restarts after findings of investigations into the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 plant are released.
Local officials are expecting a heated atmosphere on July 8 when a meeting is scheduled in Saga Prefecture over the planned restart.
Local governments and civic groups in neighboring Nagasaki and Fukuoka prefectures are expected to raise their opposition to the restart of the reactors at the Genkai plant.
(This article was compiled from reports by Masahiro Iwata, Tetsuo Kogure and Natsuki Okamura.)